Aboriginal culture is maintained through song, dance, story telling and ceremony. The beautiful Gardens and the surrounding parklands is home to numerous Aboriginal businesses, is rich in heritage places and it is central to an area that has been used for ceremony for thousands of years. Girrakool Blues Festival continues to celebrate our 1st people with ceremony, artist endeavours and cultural practises, through Welcome to Country Ceremony, and basket weaving.
2016 – Cultural Blessing
Aboriginal Traditional Custodian Kevin Duncan led a cleansing ceremony at Mt Penang Gardens, the first in thirteen years, to acknowledge country and to prepare for the inaugural Girrakool Blues Festival & BBQ.
2017 – Dancing Together
A special collaboration with Naisda Students and Yongal Man Gawurra
A special collaboration with Yongal man Stanley “Gawurra” Gaykamangu, a Kamilaroi Soul vocalist and dance students from Naisda, mixed traditional steps with contemporary elements to create a new choreography.
2018 – Traditional Earth Oven
An earth oven, also referred to as a Kup Murri, is a common method of cooking in Indigenous and Islander tribes. For the first time at Girrakool, Traditional Earth ovens were exhibited as the original method of slow cooking.
