August 18, 2010
Last night I saw a Tiwi Island show with a group of elderly women (with one or two middle aged and one young one) singing with young western musicians. The women were having so much fun - too chaotic to be termed a choir.
It was great - as part of the project the women had been to Canberra to check out the archives. There was film of a traditional dance from 1912 that no-one on Bathurst Island alive today had ever seen and some audio from the 50s. There was a huge group photo from the evacuation in WWII (like one of those whole school photos) taken in front of a plane. One of the old ladies was in it aged about 10 but had to be told it was her as she had never seen a photo of herself before or had a mirror (at the time) and had no idea what she looked like. What a mind blowing concept is that!
Lots of Tiwis in the audience major giggling from the kids and joining in from the adults. At one point 4 old gentlemen (they used the terminology - ladies and gentlemen - with curtseys and bows) got up and did two dances - impromptu. At the end the women made the musos go centre stage one by one (as each of the ladies had done) to dance and then cracked up laughing at them. At the end they went on and on dancing and singing - we are having fun and are just staying here - and ran over - till they were forced to wind up.
By Nanette Hunter
Nanette sent us this as she had emailed it to a friend earlier in the day. We thought that it captured some of the spirit of the Festival and Ngarukuruwala - We Sing Songs. - DF
