Kambarang Festival
Kambarang Festival is a brand new event that celebrates the traditions of the Noongar nations residents of Midland, showcases their art, culture and practices and seeks to heal country, restore nature and connect community.
From 1-8pm on Saturday 30 October, the Kambarang Festival will commence in the Locale precinct of Midland and culminate with the official opening of Weeip Park by the City of Swan Mayor and a performance from the Perth Symphony Orchestra.
Locals and visitors alike are invited to attend the family fun event featuring live entertainment, handmade craft and unique market stalls, face painting, free kids’ activities, gourmet food, roaming performers, sustainability information and activities along with much more.
The festival has been in the planning for several years with COVID cancelling any arrangements for 2020. Local organisation, Trillion Trees Australia has taken a leading role in the organisation of the event, commissioning community consultation which has sought to bring a unique event to Midland to engage with residents, local businesses, community groups and the City of Swan.
Kambarang – one of the six Noongar seasons specific to the southwest corner of Western Australia – was selected as the season to celebrate. Representing the natural “rebirth” taking place at that time of year with the blossoming of plants and trees and the birth time for many native fauna, it also celebrates tens of thousands of years of surviving Noongar culture unique to the area.
Trillion Trees Australia CEO, Denise True, said Kambarang Festival will combine local Noongar knowledge of the land through storytelling and showcase modern ecological innovation in a way not seen before.
“Kambarang is the season of birth and revitalisation in the Noongar calendar and this festival will share that ancient seasonal knowledge in an interactive and engaging way, whilst giving the community an opportunity to see traditional and modern ecological restoration practices at work.
“Trillion Trees has been part of this community for over 40 years, and we are privileged to support an event that celebrates local Aboriginal culture and shines a light on some of the inspiring work happening across this region in sustainability, healing, and ecological restoration.”
The Kambarang Puppet Project builds on the success of the 2018 Trillion Trees Blue Butterfly Project which saw Trillion Trees Australia work with Noongar Elder Dr Noel Nannup, professional animateur & puppetry artist Karen Hethey, acclaimed musicians Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse and local primary schools combine to create a puppet performance that told the cultural and ecological significance of the blue butterfly and the need to look after urban bushlands.
In 2021 a modified version of the original proposal has been undertaken and developed with Moorditj Noongar Community College and Woodbridge Primary School Specialist Drama Group. The program has evolved from an Immersion Day to include singing and song writing activities and puppet making workshops.
The puppets created include a giant 3.5m booyi (tortoise), a 4.5m nyorn (snake), koolbardies (magpies), biditj (ants), headdress djil djit (fish) puppets and two giant karaak puppets (Red Tailed Black Cockatoos.). Many of the puppets have cultural designs embedded that tell stories created by the students.
Students will bring to life the puppets to perform to the songs they created with Gina and Guy. At the end of the performance at The Locale, the puppets will then be joined by Junkadelic who will accompany them with an instrumental version of Koortaboodja to lead the Kambarang audience to the official opening of Weeip Park.
Kambarang Festival has the support of the local elders who are especially keen to see stories re-told by younger generations.
“Having the young ones story telling, hearing the yarns from their grandmothers and passing them down will be good. I was lucky enough to live through the days,” says Dorren Yarran.
The Kambarang Festival is sponsored by Trillion Trees Australia, Moorditj Koort and the City of Swan, suppported by Perth NRM, The West Australian, the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries and NAB and brought to you by UpBeat Events. Weeip Park is proudly supported by the Stefanelli family and Lotterywest.