The Bardi Jawi cultural dancers are a traditional dance troupe comprised of elders and future leaders of the Bardi nation. The group is based in Ardiyooloon, One Arm Point, in Western Australia.
They are keepers of traditional culture and stories through song and dance, and have performed nationally and internationally.
In Bardi culture, there are many Ilma (dances) the troupe performs at different ceremonies. A particular Ilma they perform comes from 1969, when Billy Ah Choo—a great Bardi leader—had a new dreaming. It tells the story of how he went turtle hunting and was taken out to sea by a big storm.
The Bardi Jawi cultural dancers have performed extensively in Australia and around the world, including at the Fringe Festival in Adelaide, the International Folk Art Festival, the Festival of the Pacific Arts and the G'Day USA program run by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. A particular highlight was travelling to the United Kingdom to perform at Stonehenge as part of the Salisbury Arts Festival in 2006.
More recently, they participated in the 11th Annual Conference of International Funders for Indigenous Peoples, which was an opportunity for them to share their culture with many other indigenous people around the world. In 2015, they performed at the Western Australian Maritime Museum for the Lustre: Pearling & Australia exhibition.