The Dreaming Festival

Festival Location: Woodford, QLD, Australia

Festival Type(s): Indigenous Fest , Cultural Festivals , Traditional Music Festivals

Festival Photos of The Dreaming Festival: gallery 1

The Dreaming - Australia's International Indigenous Festival

by © Matthew MacDermott 2008

Something very special is happening in the hills behind the Sunshine Coast. Something that turns dreams into reality.

Yes, the sun is shining almost all year round as the name suggests but it is the cultural connections that are taking place in a hidden valley just outside of the small town of Woodford that is most warming.

The source of this inner sunshine is the secluded, bushland valley which springs to life at the end of each year when it hosts the Woodford Folk Festival. This week-long event has grown over the last 21 years into one of the world's biggest folk festivals, showcasing cultures from around the world (see earlier article, Woodford Connect Folks Down Under).

The Woodford site is also home to the mid-year The Dreaming Festival, a showcase of Australia's own ancient cultures. Now in its third year, The Dreaming is Australia's first international indigenous festival.

The three-day event is much smaller and more intimate than its older folk festival sibling and is determined to grow slowly to ensure its future. However, both festivals share a common commitment to turning a dream of improved cultural understanding into reality.

As a first-time visitor to The Dreaming this year, I basked in its diverse offerings under clear warm winter skies in the sweet smelling bushland of the valley's traditional owners, the Jinibara people.

The Dreaming is a showcase of indigenous Australia and its ancient cultures through traditional and contemporary artistic expression. From dance, music, theatrical, literary and visual performances to workshops, stalls, lectures, films, traditional foods and crafts, the festival is a proud creative celebration of traditional Australian culture and also includes representations from the indigenous cultures of New Zealand and North America.

The beauty of The Dreaming is it opens the eyes, minds and hearts of visitors to the rich artistic talent of Australia's traditional owners, from their long ancient history into the present. It also provides the rare opportunity to witness and appreciate ceremonial performances usually not accessible to most people.

One such privilege at this year's festival was experiencing the magic of the Anangu Dancers of Uluru - the traditional owners of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (also known as Ayres Rock in central Australia). They are not a professional dance troupe, they are the traditional custodians of Uluru, and this was the first time they had performed outside of Uluru. A group of 15 men and women made the journey to perform at The Dreaming.

They usually perform in groups of 200 to 300 people and they are known to make the hard, red ground of the outback shake. On the softer green ground of the Sunshine Coast, they put on an amazing exhibition of traditional dance, complete with body paint and strict adherence to ceremonial rituals, which required the audience to look away at certain moments and no photography allowed at any time.

I also had the pleasure of taking in traditional dance performances from The Spirit of Wandjina dancers from Western Australia, the Doonooch dancers from New South Wales as well as The Clearing - a fusion of traditional and contemporary dance incorporating stilt walking.

However, the highlight of the day for me and many other visitors to The Dreaming was an emotion-charged theatrical performance of Koiki (The Life of Eddie Mabo). Produced and directed by Gail Mabo, the daughter of the late indigenous Australian land rights campaigner Eddie Koiki Mabo, this show played to full houses and standing ovations throughout the festival. It was a personal and moving piece of lively contemporary dance theatre that celebrated the life and achievements of Eddie Mabo and heralded the birth of a new vibrant Torres Strait Island dance group.

As well as the staged performances, The Dreaming also features many workshops which showcase the cultural expressions of Australia's traditional inhabitants. The sight of 'new' Australians reveling in the enjoyment of traditional dance alongside their indigenous brothers and sisters is enough to make anyone dream that a greater, lasting cultural understanding may just be possible.

by Matthew MacDermott

Festival Photos of The Dreaming Festival: gallery 1