From Pitch to Premiere: KUMARANGK: Sacred Women's Business

Three sessions sold out.  Fourth session in sale now.

Following three sold-out screenings of KUMARANGK: Sacred Women’s Business, including the World Premiere, a new session has been added to the AFF 2026 program and is on sale now. Grab a seat now while there are still some tickets left.

Watch the new trailer for KUMARANGK: Sacred Women’s Business

From pitch to premiere: KUMARANGK: Sacred Women's Business

The Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund (AFFIF) supports bold Australian screen stories and the filmmakers bringing them to life. 

At AFF 2026, one of those stories is KUMARANGK: Sacred Women’s Business, a major new documentary from Ngarrindjeri/Wotjobaluk writer and director Tracey Rigney.

For decades, Australians heard about the Hindmarsh Island bridge affair through headlines, political debate and public controversy. Far fewer heard directly from the Ngarrindjeri women whose sacred knowledge and connection to Country were at its centre.

Through their voices, KUMARANGK returns this defining chapter of South Australian history to the women who lived it.

Returning the story to the women who lived it

Combining extraordinary interviews with richly textured archival footage from the 1980s and 1990s, KUMARANGK: Sacred Women’s Business revisits a story many Australians may remember, this time centred on the voices of the Ngarrindjeri women themselves. 

For writer and director Tracey Rigney, a Wotjobaluk and Ngarrindjeri woman, this is a story grounded in voice, culture and Country. Alongside additional director and producer Josh Trevorrow, a Ngarrindjeri man, Rigney brings the story back to the people and place at its heart. 

More than a dispute over infrastructure, the fight to protect Kumarangk was about an enduring cultural relationship with land and water, and the right of Ngarrindjeri women to protect sacred knowledge.

KUMARANGK: Sacred Women’s Business makes its World Premiere at Adelaide Film Festival 2026, bringing this significant South Australian story to the big screen on Kaurna Country.