First Lights - Shared Skies follows Ladakhi artist Jigmet Angmo and Gunai artist Kirli Saunders during the early stages of an ambitious India–Australia collaboration. In Hanle, Ladakh, and at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, the artists spend time with Elders and knowledge holders, exploring cultural relationships with the night sky and gathering insights that will shape a shared story for a large-scale storytelling, music and light performance. Capturing a project in its formative stages, the film documents a process of listening, exchange and creative discovery. Through conversations, observation and time spent on Country, First Lights – Shared Skies explores how sky stories continue to connect people to place, community and culture, revealing unexpected connections across continents and ways of knowing.
