Aboriginal and Islander Culture from North Queensland

Videos from the Real AUSTRALIA

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture is now mainly performed on stage. During the yearly "Pyramid Race", in which athletes run up to Walsh's pyramid near Gordonvale, 25 km south of Cairns, local Aboriginal people of the Yidinyji-Malanbarra clan may perform traditional dances, nowadays accompanied with the didjeridu, originally from Arnhem Land. A festival at the Parramatta Primary School in Cairns showcases different groups , mainly from local schools; dances from the Torres Strait Islands, accompanied by hourglass drums from Papua New Guinea, are also featured.

Mabo Day commemorates Eddie Mabo's challenge to the Australian Government's claim that Australia was "empty land" before colonisation: he came from Murray Island (or Mer), in the eastern Torres Strait. Festivities in Cairns carry on into the night with spectacular dances, including Torres Strait Islander students from Djarragun College, an indigenous school in Gordonvale. Aboriginal, Torres Strait and Pacific Islander girl students from Djarragun College have taken to doing Islander dances, called "hula dances" and these are also very popular during the school's celebrations.

Six Aboriginal and Islander students from Djarragun College were invited to the United Arab Emirates in March 2008 and performed traditional dances in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The last evening of their tour they performed at the Abu Dhabi residence of the ambassador of the UAE to Australia, an unforgettable evening.

If you like to see a video of this, just click on the small picture.