​Malandarri Festival Borroloola June 2017

This was the pattern of the body painting on many of the performers and children alike

Dancers in the dark, in the sand and under the stars. Two marvellous nights to remember! A community and regional celebration of traditional and contemporary arts and cultural practices of the four clans in the area. The kids, including some local white kids, joined in most performances. In fact we ended up being treated to a veritable multicultural smorgasbord - not just dancers from the families (men, women and children) in the region but also Bollywood, Fijian and Tahitian performances.

Fipe Preuss is a Tahitian, living in Melbourne but
was helping event manage the Festival.

The Fijian team! The music was very moving

This energetic dancer performed some 'traditional' Indian as well as Bollywood numbers

The kindergarten children performed a couple of numbers, sung both in English and Yanyuwa.

You can watch some of the dancing on YouTube by pasting these links into your browser: Tahitian dance https://youtu.be/GLnbIUpKKSQ and Fijian dance https://youtu.be/HwLWtG7TyS0 All wrapped in the echoes of the haunting sounds of the didgeridoo and the singing mainly of the old women https://youtu.be/l34eo9BejVw

The singers sat in a row. Mostly it was the old women but here some male elders
were providing the singing and didgeridoo backing. The dances were telling
stories which I was wishing I could understand.

The night ended with a couple of local bands which had heaps of people up dancing. I think Lindsay almost got up!!!

Everyone, well almost everyone, got painted and wore white cockatoo feathers.
 It looked spectacular. This little cherub sat playing for ages in the sand