For the third year running Sunshine Coast people had an opportunity to build positive relationships and share in local Aboriginal culture, and Aboriginal people could inform themselves about support services available to them, at the Booin Gari festival in Tewantin on 19 January.Some random voices:
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Booin Gari means “come this way” in the language of the Gubbi Gubbi the tribe whose traditional land encompasses the Sunshine Coast.
Arguably the most spectacular manifestation of Aboriginality was again the dancing and singing of the Gubbi Gubbi Dancers as they welcomed us to their country.
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The Gubbi Gubbi Dancers got things off to a goose-bumpy start with singing, dancing, didge playing and a demonstration of making fire by rubbing sticks. Diet talked to their leader, Lyndon Davis.
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The member for Noosa in the Queensland Parliament, Glen Elmes, who’s been able to rustle up some state money for the festival, sees it as a role model.
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Diet Simon heard Shona Kendrick, a former 101.3 presenter, talking to Glen Elmes about her concern that the dingoes on Fraser Island might be exterminated. So Diet butted in:
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People gave us their views on the bush tucker being handed around:
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Geoff Walters, General Manager of United Synergies , explained to Gerard Broerson that Booin Gari was launched because they felt they were not engaging enough with the Aboriginal community of our area.
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Singer-songwriter and high school teacher in Ipswich, Lizzy Connor, performed some of her songs and talked with Kerry Redfern, presenter of our ‘Solid Ground’ Aboriginal show on Saturday mornings.
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Also packed into the four hours were presentations by local Aboriginal painter, Peter Mulcahy who explained his Gumilaroi people’s dreamings that inspire his works and who gives talks in schools. There was a bush tucker cooking demonstration by Dale Chapman , there were art workshops and storytelling, and a discussion on the Stolen Generations led by Judi Wickes , a local Aboriginal woman with partly white heritage.
Also, a white woman who learnt from female Aboriginal fellow students at Queensland University in the 1970s, some of whom are now nationally famous, harshly criticised the Northern Territory intervention in that session. Jenny Harvey, who calls herself “a semi-retired activist”, told Diet Simon that at university she became aware for the first time of what was happening in her own state, Queensland.
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More voices of people at the festival:
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Another song by Lizzy Connor and talk with Kerry about Lizzy’s wish to build a cultural foundation.
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We talked to representatives of services that provide support specifically for Aborigines along our coast and who presented at Booin Gari.
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And some more groups offering services:
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Elders under shade tents specially reserved for them told us how they appreciated the event.
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The Sunshine Coast Daily reported 500 people attending. The five of us who were there from this station think there were more.
We ended the program with the closing ceremony from the Gubbi Gubbi dancers.
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Contact What’s Going On? by emailing Mark at markrzz@bigpond.com or phoning 5447 2233 in office hours.
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