The Melbourne Festival – Tanderrum

My first day in Australia was the first day of the Melbourne Festival with both Portland and family connections for me. The former Artistic Director for the Melbourne Festival was Kristy Edmunds who created the Portland Institute for Contemporary Arts and then moved from Portland to do the same thing – but bigger – here. At that time, Kristy’s patron was my cousin Penny who ran Arts Victoria for the Premier of the State; essentially the cheque book for the festival. Small world even over thousands of miles.  

Melbourne connects to Portland via Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire.

The opening performance for the festival was Tanderrum a ceremony that brings together the five aboriginal clans that have lived here for hundreds, if not thousands, of generations; a ceremony that had been hidden until recently since the British arrived two hundred years ago. The ceremony celebrates spring and the agreement among these groups to allow each other on their lands temporarily to hunt and fish. A lot like Tom McCall’s dictum about Oregon; you are welcome to visit but please don’t stay.

Two things struck me about this event. First, the participants were not all obviously aboriginal due to a long time of mingling and mixing with new arrivals. Apparently, in Victoria you are allowed to claim first people status even if you are only one 32nd aboriginal; a source of anger for the conservative end of the political spectrum. 

Second, the festival was very visible about needing permission to photograph the event due to cultural sensitivities. In the US, I am sure this performance would have been surrounded by a Christmas tree of lit up iPhones snapping and posting to Instagram but here – nothing. Not a single camera in evidence. Which is why I stole the attached photos from the official festival site – the event I saw was identical as you would expect. 

However, as I left, I heard a lady complaining to her friend that she was “a bit disappointed because it was the same as last year”. Well I’m sure it’s been the same for the last 60,000 years; it’s not a bloody rock concert where you expect them to play the new album.