Ngioka was part of a special collaboration between Test Sites and the 2017 Yirramboi First Nations Arts Festival to develop work for the public realm. This included mentoring and support for artists to develop new ideas for the public realm. Ngioka then went on to present her work at the Barring Yanabul event during Yirramboi.
Ngioka Bunda-Heath is Wakka Wakka, Ngugi from Queensland through her mother and Biripi from New South Wales through her father. She has danced in Noumea, New Caledonia with Compine Maado, Banff in Canada as part of the International Indigenous Dance Residency and has taken part in the World Dance Alliance in France.
In 2015 she completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) at the Victorian College of the Arts and was the first Aboriginal woman to graduate from the university in her field. During secondments with Sydney Dance Company and Bangarra Dance Theatre, Ngioka learnt company repertoire with Rafael Bonochela, Amy Hollingsworth and Stephen Page.
Ngioka has also completed a traineeship with Bangarra Dance Theatre teaching Contemporary dance in rural Victoria with their Youth Education Program called Rekindling and has been teaching Hip Hop dance in remote communities all around Australia with the Indigenous Hip Hop Projects. She also has a major in Dance from the Aboriginal Centre of the Performing Arts in Queensland.
Epidermis
‘Epidermis’ tested a contemporary dance work that explores the forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families by the Australian government and church missions under the state government’s Aboriginal Protection Act, from 1869 until 1971. This is now known as the Stolen Generation. The children who were removed were sent to institutions and/or adopted by non-Indigenous families, and most never saw their families again. During this time the Australian government labeled these often-mixed raced children according to their skin colour and features: ‘half-caste’, ‘quarter-caste’, ‘full blood’. It was thought half caste’s children could be assimilated more easily into western society.
‘Epidermis’ tested guerrilla style dance-theatre and audience's reactions and interactions with the dancers in the Melbourne CBD. The test saw Ngioka, alongside fellow dancers, perform a rough, improvised choreographic draft of her dance work at various sites. The work used the removal and swapping of clothing both by the dancers and with the audience to explore ideas of identity.