Created in collaboration with City of Kwinana and Noongar artist Noelene Regan, The Karak Family and Karlup are large-scale performance works that blend First Nations storytelling, puppetry, sculptural installation, and contemporary public art into a powerful shared experience.

At the heart of the project are three monumental Karak performance suits representing a Noongar black cockatoo family: Maaman Karak (father), Ngaangk Karak (mother), and Koolangka Karak (child). More than costumes, the Karaks were designed as living performance works, fabricated to move with presence, rhythm, and emotional weight through crowds and public space.

From the beginning, movement drove the design process. The wings were carefully engineered to expand into dramatic full-span moments before folding seamlessly back against the body, allowing performers to navigate festivals, parades, and immersive environments with ease. Every structural decision balanced large-scale visual impact, performer comfort, and fluid puppetry performance.

Hand-built in our Melbourne workshop, the Karaks feature layered feather textures, sculpted forms, and deep black-to-red gradients designed to read both intimately up close and powerfully at scale. Across the wings, crest, and tail, artwork by Noelene Regan carries stories connected to Noongar Boodjar, ancestry, family, and Country, transforming each suit into a moving canvas of cultural storytelling.

Alongside the Karaks sits Karlup, meaning campfire or home, a contemporary illuminated gathering space inspired by the symbolism of fire as connection, ceremony, and knowledge sharing. Layered sound recordings brought to life by Sisters Marie Walley and Dr Millie Penny, create a living, multi-sensory environment that invites audiences to pause, gather, listen, and reflect.

Together, Karak and Karlup transform public space into an interactive cultural experience, combining puppet performance, interactive installation, projection art, and community storytelling in a way that feels both ancient and future-facing.

We are deeply grateful to have collaborated with Noelene Regan, whose cultural knowledge and artistic practice shaped every part of these works, and to the City of Kwinana for creating space for First Nations stories to be experienced through contemporary performance and installation.

Both the Karak performers and Karlup installation are now available for hire for festivals, city council events, cultural programs, parades, and large-scale public activations across Australia and internationally.