Our Last Tree is a new full-length contemporary dance and music work by Nelipot Collective, currently in advanced creative development. It will premiere in September 2026 as part of La Mama’s Hope Punk Climate Festival in Naarm/Melbourne.
Set in a near-dystopian future, the work begins at the moment the last of the forest giants has fallen in lutruwita/Tasmania. Through a non-linear structure, the piece layers time, holding collapse, memory and possibility in the same space. It moves between future consequence and present choice, asking not only what has been lost, but what might still be rebuilt.
At its centre is the tree itself, situated within the Tasmanian landscape and imagined as witness, ancestor and living record. It stands as evidence of adaptation across centuries, holding shelter, renewal and warning within the same form. The tree carries ecological memory and asks what remains when community fractures and extraction outweighs care.
Grounded in place and informed by the realities of climate change in the Anthropocene, Our Last Tree explores environmental loss alongside the breakdown and potential rebuilding of collective responsibility.
The work draws on the spirit of hopepunk: storytelling that does not turn away from ecological grief or systemic failure, but locates hope in resistance, care and collective action. Hope is not presented as passive optimism or the promise of an easy resolution. Instead, it emerges through the difficult work of reckoning with the past, reconnecting with one another and choosing to act.
Artistic Approach
Responsive, relational movement language
The choreography is ensemble-based and physically rigorous, shaped through ongoing dialogue between dancers and musicians. Movement develops in close relationship to the imagined presence of the tree and the evolving sonic environment.
Physical motifs circulate through the ensemble, accumulating weight, dispersing and reforming in shifting configurations that reflect interdependence under pressure. Individual bodies become part of a larger organism, exploring how communities respond to grief, fracture and the possibility of renewal.
Integrated original music and sonic environment
Music operates as a structural partner rather than accompaniment. Composed and live-performed elements evolve in direct dialogue with the choreography, shaping rhythm, atmosphere and momentum.
The sonic world draws from environmental textures and human interference. It carries traces of ecological abundance, disruption and absence, while creating space for connection and transformation.
Place-based ecological storytelling
Developed in response to the landscapes of lutruwita/Tasmania, the work situates global climate realities within local experience. The forest giant is both specific to place and resonant beyond it, inviting audiences to consider their own relationships with land, resources and collective responsibility.
Rather than presenting ecological collapse as inevitable, Our Last Tree asks what becomes possible when a community acknowledges what has been lost and begins to act together.
Creative development
Our Last Tree evolved from an earlier research phase titled Raze Rays Raise, which explored the sustainability triad of individuals, communities and environment. That investigation formed the conceptual foundation for the current work.
The project is now in an advanced phase of creative development, refining its dramaturgy, deepening choreographic material and strengthening the integration of movement and live music in preparation for its September 2026 premiere at La Mama’s Hope Punk Climate Festival.
During early development, we collaborated with Sam from Equinox Dance + Film to create a short film responding to the work in progress.
