Some of them are
extremely skilful,
these skills don't come without a lot of practice, and some groups even
do it as a full time career.
The three day festival is held in late
June (The Northern Hemisphere's
Midsummer weekend), at Ang-Gnarra
Festival Ground, about 15km south of
Laura.
Laura
Aboriginal Dance Festival is
only on every second year
(alternating with the biannual Torres
Strait Cultural Festival on Thursday
Island, that is equally fantastic).
Aurukun
dancers. All photos are subject to Copyright - do not copy.
Laura Aboriginal Festival is all about traditional
dancing,
and it's great
to watch.
Kuranda
dancing. All photos are subject to Copyright - do not copy.
Cape York has a lot of different Aboriginal communities, and each
community has a group of traditional
dancers and singers.
Injinoo
dancing. All photos are subject to Copyright - do not copy.
Every second year all those groups gather here in Laura, and one after
another they perform
their songs and
dance during the Laura Dance Festival weekend.
Mapoon
dancing. All photos are subject to Copyright - do not copy.
Some even come from
outside Cape York
(the group on the photo below is from Australia's central deserts).
Marrinyama
dancers. All photos are subject to Copyright - do not copy.
Every performance consists of several
dances, danced to live
music
by the musicians and the singers of the group.
Lockhart
River musicians. All photos are subject to Copyright - do not copy.
Clapping sticks, boomerangs,
drums and didgeridoos
are all
used to create the music.
Hope
Vale dancing. All photos are subject to Copyright - do not copy.
The groups vary.
Most are of
course Aboriginal, but Cape York also has Torres Strait Islander
communities in the far north.
Umagico
dancers (Torres Strait Islanders). All photos are subject to Copyright
- do not copy.
Most include the classic
emu,
kangaroo and eagle dance, ...
Townsville
doing the kangaroo dance. All photos are subject to Copyright - do not
copy.
... but other than that the performances
can be very different.
Cooktown
kids dancing. All photos are subject to Copyright - do not copy.
Some make it cute and let their kids
do the whole performance, ...
New
Mapoon kids dancing. All photos are subject to Copyright - do not copy.
... others put on some
more show
...
Pormpuraaw
dancing. All photos are subject to Copyright - do not copy.
... and even extensive
acts.
Lockhart
River
dancing. All photos are subject to Copyright - do not copy.
Like on every other festival, of course there are food stalls, souvenir
stalls, and all kinds of advertiser stalls where you can pick your
freebies.
Food
stalls. All photos are subject to Copyright - do not copy.
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