Now in its 13th year, the annual festival celebrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and knowledge keepers will explode into a multi-arts festival featuring song, dance, film, discussion and art, fusing contemporary and traditional cultural art forms.
Voices across Australia, reflecting some 57 Aboriginal and Torres Strait language groups, will be represented through a week-long program that boasts an impressive line-up of performers, collaborators and contributors, from the emerging to the established.
Spend an evening of surprise and delight with one of Australia’s leading personalities, Ernie Dingo, as he gives an intimate and humorous insight into his country and family.
Casey Donovan is a passionate performer who continues to defy the label as just an Aboriginal singer she is determined to create well rounded roles for women in musical theatre with her rendition and tribute concert to Mama Cass.
The collaborative process that our knowledge keepers, song men and women continue to aspire to, are reflected in our international song circle, Tri Nations Women’s Business, featuring a line-up of leading divas from New Zealand, Canada and Australia.
An extraordinary mix of discussion will be generated, with many guest speakers, including George Negus, John Pilger, Gary Foley, Ivan Sen, Margaret and David, and Mitch Torres.
Our Icons will be celebrated through three men, three decades and lots of stories with Archie Roach, Shane Howard and Neil Murray.
The next generation continues the collaboration in music with greats such as Tim Rogers and Dan Sultan, as they bring their dynamic vocals to the line-up of the Black Arm Band with dirtsong, alongside those chanteuses Lou Bennet and Shellie Morris.
Message Sticks’ former artistic direction and the talent of Darren Dale and Rachel Perkins created a new legacy and established a major film component of the Festival that toured the country creating an annual expectation of the best. We hope to do justice with an eclectic number of screenings from feature films, classics and new works and documentaries depicting the social, cultural and spiritual makeup of our first peoples across the globe.
Song man Cecil McLeod joins our modern day corroborree, through the Dancestry grounds that continue the custodians ancient stomps and the ritual of song cycles with groups representing as far north as the Yolngu, to the richness of our NSW nations including Yuin, Wiradjuri, Dhungutti and Bundjalung to name just a few. Experience this special event daily on the western broadwalk.
With a thematic exhibition celebrating the Tent Embassy, I am proud that in a small way we are able to pay homage to those who created a cultural industry. Elders such as Uncle Chika Dixon, Bob Maza, Justine Saunders, Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Brian Syron, to now, where many of our artists are the leading mentors, writers, directors and performers across their fields. We honour some of them in our exhibition Under the Beach Umbrella that focuses on that special period back in 1972.
