Tens of thousands of people from all walks of life have turned out for the annual Yabun festival on Australia Day to celebrate Indigenous culture with a packed line up of cultural entertainment, including yarning, art, music, fashion, food and dance.
The event at Victoria Park, in Camperdown, yesterday, was also the finishing point of the Sydney ‘Invasion Day’ rally which attracted about 10,000 protest marchers according to police. A rally opposing immigration, the ‘March for Australia’, took place at the same time on a different route, attracting approximately 2,000 people, and ending with the arrest of one man for hate speech towards Jews.
Similar opposing marches took place around the country.
The Australia Day holiday, celebrated on the anniversary of Arthur Phillip’s landing at Sydney Cove in 1788, has deeply divided Australians for its link with the country’s colonisation, an event prefacing the dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders from their lands, widespread massacres and the enforced separation of Indigenous children from their parents.
“For me [it is important] to show up for the First Nations community here and stand with them in solidarity about what this day means for them,” said Domina Augustine from Parramatta. “This is the first time I’ve come to the festival, I usually go to the protest.
“It’s been really nice to come for the first time… I’m keen for the talks, which I’m really excited about, but it’s so cool to have just a mix of everything.”
The festival, which has been running for more than two decades, attracts people from across Australia and around the world.
Olivia Immes from Virginia, in the United States, and Tim James from Brisbane were also attending for the first time and said they were “experiencing the local culture as opposed to our home and just enjoying a day of community … [and] trying something new and different”.
Discussion of sovereignty at the ‘Speak Out’ tent. Photo: Harry Craigie
Throughout the day a broad cross-section of the community filtered through the 100 per cent First Nations owned and led event.
The festival included multiple stages headlined by various Indigenous acts including: Baker Boy, Kobie Dee, Budjerah and Emma Donovan. Free access to Victoria Park Pool was also available to visitors. Despite overcast weather throughout the day many commented the event was noticeably bigger than last year, which attracted 65,000 attendees.
Yabun translates to “music to a beat” in the Gadigal language, the clan that covers the country in Sydney south of the Harbour Bridge, from the coast to as far as Petersham in the Inner West. It was founded in 2003 by the Redfern-based Gadigal Information Services, the enterprise behind Koori Radio 93.7FM.
The festival was initially formed as a continuation of the existing ‘survival day’ events that were held throughout the 1990s, and provided a free space for the First Nations community to catch up with friends and family.
Since then the festival has grown substantially and sees tens of thousands of local and travelling guests annually. For many of these guests, attending the festival holds great significance on what can be a difficult day for many.
Dancers performing at the Corroboree Ground. Photo: Harry Craigie.
As well as dozens of merchandise and food stalls, there were panel discussions throughout the day on serious issues as wide ranging as fishing rights and black deaths in custody.
For Dunghutti man Lachlan Wright, the father of Jai Kalani Wright, who was killed by a police officer in 2022 in the nearby suburb of Alexandria, the community event brought mixed emotions.
“I’ve always grown up around this area,” he told the audience. “I lost my son about four years ago, not far from here, so it’s a bit of a shock to the system coming to a day like Yabun, where he came for as long as I can remember spending the day with us.”
Main image by Harry Craigie.
