The Event
Australia Day 2010 will bring together black and white communities on the Mid North Coast in an extraordinary celebration, the first Saltwater Freshwater Festival.
The biggest celebration of the Mid North Coast’s Aboriginal culture ever held, the inaugural festival will take over Coffs Harbour’s Botanic Garden on January 26 for a day of music, dance, food, art and games.
The Venue
The North Coast Regional Botanic Garden in Coffs Harbour covers about 20 hectares of Crown Land only one kilometre from the central business district and is surrounded on three sides by Coffs Creek. The banks of the Creek are lined with naturally occurring mangroves. The tidal part of the creek forms part of the Solitary Islands Marine Park.
It is one of the major regional botanic gardens on coastal New South Wales north of Sydney. There are displays of Australian native and exotic plants, including many rare and endangered species.
There are numerous information leaflets available at the garden entrance. The Garden is open every day from 9 am to 5 pm.
There will be three stages and a host of Aboriginal food and market stalls in the garden. Activities will range from concert performances to art workshops; from traditional dancing to hip hop; from art exhibitions to gunya building and from weaving workshops to gourmet bush tucker.
The Festival
The organiser of the inaugural festival is Arts Mid North Coast’s Regional Aboriginal Cultural Development Officer, designer and TV personality, Alison Page. “We want to showcase local talent, celebrate the culture of the first Australians here and offer something very meaningful everyone can share.” she says.
The Festival site has been divided into three key areas.
To the left as you enter the Garden is the Buwarrinyin area, which is the local Aboriginal Gumbaynggirr language word for woman. The site includes:
• Weaving workshops
• Acoustic entertainers
• Pukka bush tukka cooking talk
• Art exhibitions
• Koori-Oke!
• Elders area
Further down the path to the right is the Picnic Area which has been transformed to Jaanybarr, which in Gumbaynggirr means man. This area has boardwalk access to the creek, is well shaded and will feature:
• Dance workshops
• A range of children’s activities (Mook-Mook Making and Gunya Building)
• Guided bush tucker walks
The main concert and traditional games area, Gamambi (children) is held in the centre of the Garden. This will be the central gathering space which will house the:
• Festival Concert featuring Troy Cassar-Daley, Emma Donovan and White House
• Dance demonstrations
• Aboriginal food stalls
• Aboriginal market Stalls
• Traditional Aboriginal Games
• Meet Aboriginal Football Stars
