Over 15 000 people gathered at Victoria Park in Camperdown, Sydney, on January 26, 2016, to celebrate Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures at the annual Yabun Festival.
 
Hosted by Gadigal Information Service, Yabun Festival is one of the largest annual gatherings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the country, featuring a range of Aboriginal cultural activities, stalls and live music performances.
 
This year’s Yabun Festival was headlined by Aboriginal rock/reggae icon Bart Willoughby who performed several of his classic Aboriginal anthems, including ‘We have Survived’, in front of an adoring crowd.
 
Other artists who performed at this year’s event included Leah Flanagan, Bow & Arrow, Drewz, Evie J Willie, Black Turtles, Yarwah, Nooky, Tasman Keith and Radical Son.
 
Loren Ryan, a 19 year-old singer-songwriter from Tamworth, was among the young and emerging talents who performed at the Young Black and Deadly & Klub Koori Youth Stage. Ms Ryan said she was thrilled to join the Yabun Festival lineup in 2016.
 
“Yabun is a wonderful platform, especially for a young artists like myself to be able to perform in front of my community and show them how I’ve evolved and grown as an artist, it means the world to me,” said Ms Ryan.
 
After some early morning rain, the skies cleared for a beautiful Sydney summer’s day and the crowds quickly descended upon the festival grounds. The 2016 Yabun Festival began with a traditional smoking ceremony, followed by the annual Kevin Cook Lecture, presented this year by representatives from the First Peoples Disability Network, Gayle Rankine and Damian Griffis. The speeches addressed a range of issues surrounding disability in Indigenous communities.

At the Speak Out Tent, community members and leaders gathered for some passionate discussion on a range of important issues affecting Aboriginal communities, including Constitutional recognition, domestic violence, and language revival.
 
The Corroboree Ground was a popular attraction throughout the day, drawing large crowds who watched dance groups from across New South Wales perform traditional Aboriginal dance. Dance groups included Doonoch Dancers, Koomurri, Black Cockatoo Wagana and Djaadjawan Dancers. The Corroboree Ground closed with a memorable flash mob, when audience members were invited onto the Corroboree Ground to join the dancing.
 
Yabun Festival once more offered a wide range of activities for children, including traditional Aboriginal games, arts and crafts, performance workshops, and circus skills lessons.
 
Gadigal Information Service CEO, Jodie Choolburra, said the 2016 Yabun Festival marked a new milestone for the event in terms of community support and engagement, also highlighting the high numbers of non-Indigenous people who attended.
 
“We had over 100 stalls at this year’s Yabun Festival, including many important community organisations, we had over 90 volunteers give their time and effort to make the event the success that it was, we also enjoyed one of our biggest crowds in event history and it was fantastic to see so many Australians, of all backgrounds, meeting, having a good time and celebrating Aboriginal culture and identity in a spirit of unity and respect,” said Mrs Choolburra.
 
“A huge thanks goes out to all of our volunteers, sponsors and supporters, including the City of Sydney, Australia Council for the Arts, Destination NSW, Arts NSW, Australian Defence Force and the New South Wales Government, to name just a few, we are very proud to deliver such an important festival that just gets bigger every year.”
 
High-res images available upon request.
 
For all media inquiries contact: Jake Keane, 0407 530 619, news@gadigal.org.au
 
Twitter: @yabunfestival #yabun2016 Facebook: www.facebook.com/YabunFestival Online: www.yabun.org.au
 

Get into the Yabun Festival spirit early this year by coming along to Yabun Movie Night and enjoying a free screening of Indigenous films.

Taking place on the evening of January 22, the night kicks off with a selection of Indigenous short films at 8:00pm, followed by a screening of feature film ‘Ten Canoes’ at 9:00pm.
The free screenings will take place outdoors at Pioneers Memorial Park in Leichardt.

Released in 2006, ‘Ten Canoes’ is an acclaimed film directed by Ralph de Heer and staring Jamie Gulpilil, the son of renowned Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil. Set in Arnhem Land, the film retells an ancient Yolngu story.
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What: Yabun Movie Night
Where: Pioneers Memorial Park, Leichhardt
Price: FREE

Sydney’s largest celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture will return to Victoria Park in Camperdown this month with live music, food stalls and traditional dance, arts and crafts.

Up to 25,000 people will head to the park on Tuesday 26 January for the free annual Yabun Festival, run by Gadigal Information Service Aboriginal Corporation and sponsored by the City of Sydney.
 
Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the City was proud to sponsor the one-day festival and its packed program of arts, dance, music and discussions, beginning with a traditional smoking ceremony and welcome dances.
 
“Yabun celebrates the survival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the oldest living-culture in the world,” the Lord Mayor said.
 
“Since 2002 Yabun has grown into one of the biggest festivals of its kind in the country. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about the culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their ongoing contribution to our unique city.
 
“It’s also a great fun day out to meet with friends and family or take children to be entertained.”
 
This year’s festival will be headlined by pioneering Aboriginal rock-reggae musician Bart Willoughby, who has played with No Fixed Address, Coloured Stone, Yothu Yindi and Mixed Relations.
 
Mr Willoughby received an ARIA award in 1993 for his “outstanding contribution to Indigenous music in Australia” and continues to record and tour with The Bart Willoughby Band.
 
Also on the Yabun stage are Darwin musician Leah Flanagan, Kamilaroi-Tongan singer-songwriter Radical Son, Sydney singer Evie J Willie, Blue Mountains duo Bow & Arrow and Sydney band The Black Turtles.
 
The Corroboree Ground at Yabun provides an unforgettable cultural experience, with men and women gathering to perform traditional Aboriginal dance.
 
A unique atmosphere builds around the corroboree circle as the ancient sound of clap sticks merge with didgeridoo and Aboriginal language.
 
“We’re really excited about Corroboree Ground given how huge it was last year,” Yabun Event Coordinator, Miah Wright said.

“The beauty about Corroboree Ground is that we’ve got dance groups coming from all over the country, they’re going to bringing all of their songs, dances and stories from where they’re from, and that’s quite special, we’re reaching out to all the mobs from all over.”

Last year, 10 traditional dance groups travelled from across NSW and Queensland to perform at Corroboree Ground and even more dance groups will perform at the 2016 event. 
 
Yabun Festival
Tuesday 26 January, 10am–7pm
Victoria Park, corner of Parramatta and City roads, Camperdown.
yabun.org.au #yabun2016 
 
For City of Sydney media inquiries: Senior Media Adviser Jodie Minus
0467 803 815 or jminus@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au 
 
For interviews with Lord Mayor Clover Moore: Paul Mackay.
0443 182 647 or pmackay@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
 
For Yabun media inquiries: Jake Keane
0407 530 619 or news@gadigal.org.au

Photo Credit: Michelle Lake

There’s plenty of events and performances taking place around Sydney on the 26th of January, 2016, but nothing quite like Yabun Festival’s Corroboree Ground, where men and women of the world’s oldest surviving culture gather to perform traditional Aboriginal dance.

Corroboree Ground quickly became a main attraction at the 2015 Yabun Festival, an annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture that takes place in Victoria Park in Camperdown, Sydney, on January 26. 

Yabun Festival is a free event, featuring some of the biggest names and emerging artists from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music scene, along with arts and crafts workshops and stalls, singing and dancing lessons for kids, and sports activities. 

 The Corroboree Ground at Yabun provides a truly unforgettable cultural experience. A unique energy and atmosphere builds around the corroboree circle as the ancient sound of clap sticks merging with didgeridoo and Aboriginal language ring out across Victoria Park.

“We’re really excited about Corroboree Ground given how huge it was in 2015,” says Yabun Event Coordinator, Miah Wright. 

“The beauty about Corroboree Ground is that we’ve got dance groups coming from all over the country, they’re going to bringing all of their songs, dances and stories from where they’re from, and that’s quite special, we’re reaching out to all the mobs from all over.”

In 2015, 10 traditional dance groups travelled from across New South Wales and Queensland to perform at Corroboree Ground and even more dance groups will perform at the 2016 event.  Yabun Festival was first held in 2002 as a celebration of the survival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural survival. The event has grown to become one of the major Indigenous cultural gatherings in the country, drawing crowds of up to 25 000 people. 

“Aboriginal peoples have been meeting at significance cultural places for ceremony and dancing for thousands of years, Corroboree Ground at Yabun is a continuation of that tradition, and plays an important role in persevering and showcasing the strength and beauty of Aboriginal culture and identity,” says  Gadigal Information Service CEO, Jodie Choolburra.
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Corroboree Ground performances will occur throughout the day at Yabun Festival at the designated Corroborre Ground dance circle. 

For more information contact Gadigal Information Service on 02 9384 4000, or email news@gadigal.org.au