The 2009 Dreaming Festival

The 2009 Dreaming Festival was an enormous success,
with a program of mostly unknown (at least to me) acts,
3 days and 4 nights of fantastic and varied artists, speakers,
films, drama, dancers and musicians from around the globe.




Showcasing the incredible talent and heart of indigenous
people the world over.
Let me share a few photos to give those who couldn't be
some concept of what it was like.






The weather was very good considering the rain we have
had leading up to the weekend, a bit muddy and bloody cold.
It was well attended, the numbers seemed to be up on last
year, with heaps of campers staying for the whole thing.


Some of the artists I saw included, apart from the ones
at the Liyarn Ngarn concert, Richard Frankland,
The Real Deal, The Iwantjah Band, Cheryl L'Hirondelle Band,
Freshwater and Chris Combette and Band




I also saw a one man play by David Page called Page 8,
which was bloody fantastic, Mick Dobson do a keynote
speech, A forum taken by the Totonaca people from
Mexico and some Mexican indigenous short films.
And so much more, this is one of the greatest festivals
of this type in the world and truly a fantastic educational
and yet fun experience.





Liyarn Ngarn concert featured a powerful collaboration of some
of our most legendary musicians, Archie Roach, Shane Howard,
Ruby Hunter, Ewen Baker, Robert Taylor and David Arden.
Late on the first night this spellbinding concert went for some
2 hours. Each of the singers performed songs with the others
backing, with especially beautiful performances from Archie,
Shane and Ruby. Finishing with a fantastic performance of
Solid Rock complete with a hip hop section with 2 hip hop
performers from one of the other bands from the festival,
Street Warriors.