Lingua Madre | Mother Tongue

Lingua Madre, 2026 / Source: Courtesy of the artists / Photo: Dominic Steele, Briana Mirabella (assistant)

People leave their homes, and build new ones, for countless reasons; each story is different, and has something to teach. In Italian, we say il mondo è bello perchè vario, the world is beautiful because it is diverse. This is the heart of the work.

An invitation for the audience to walk in the shoes of someone leaving their home, or attempting to build a new one, Lingua Madre unfolds moments of joy, belonging, sorrow, profound loneliness, and everything in between, set to music from sources as various as Ravel, Villa-Lobos, Björk and the Dirty Projectors, and Australian composer Brett Dean. The work embodies the complexity of living out a life split between multiple places, in which more than one truth must be held simultaneously.  At a time of increasing division and the stoking of anti-migrant sentiment, Lingua Madre explores and expresses the sense of belonging that can come from embracing the kaleidoscope of human experience, seeking to understand and welcome the cultures, perspectives and stories of one another.

Created by Italian-born, Naarm-based choreographer and dancer Arianna Marchiori in collaboration with dancers from M.Collective, Clementine Isaacson and singers from Alchemy Consort, and starring Australian mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean, who now calls Europe home, Lingua Madre finds its own proper ‘home’ in the Immigration Museum’s Long Room: not only one of the finest acoustics in Melbourne, but one that resonates with centuries of travel, trade and transformation.