The Informer

5 Jul 2017

Cape York communities come together at ‘deadliest’ Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival

Arts, Regional

The Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival is an exciting biennial gathering in Cape York Peninsula, highlighting the diverse communities, language, song, dance, art and storytelling.

Held in Laura – about 3 and half hours north east of Cairns – people from Cape York’s different Aboriginal communities come together to celebrate their culture.

This year’s festival has just wrapped up with organisers calling it the ‘deadliest ever’.  9000 people turned up to watch the three-day festival, 23 dance groups competed and the employees were all Indigenous.

For the first time in its history there was a three-tie win between the Kawanji Wimpa (Lockhart River Dancers), Mayi Wunba (Kuranda) and Kayn Kowesal (Bamaga).

Wayne Butcher is the mayor of Lockhart River and led a team of more than 200 people from his community to the festival. Wayne told The Informer how everyone in the community worked hard for six months to be competition ready.

Audio of the dancing courtesy of Brad Welsh.

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