Despite financial concerns, Boomerang, the indigenous festival for all Australians, will return.
Promoter Peter Noble and festival director Rhoda Roberts both said that the experience was so unique that people would return and bring their friends. Over 5,000 attended over three days, to engaged with the music, art, dance, painting, film, discussion and cultural exchanges. They experienced highlights as the moving opening and closing ceremonies, the hushed silence before a stunning set by Gurrumul where he was joined unexpectedly by Natalie Pa'apa'a of Blue King Brown, weaving circles to traditional Maori healing and tea with elders and discussions featuring Dr Gondarra, Xavier Rudd and Jeff McMullen.
Roberts recalled, “There was the sun and the sand grounds; and then there were all of us together on the crest of a new beginning. It’s obvious the people will return for this experience and for our people it will be a returning of the culture.”
Noble, who held Boomerang at the Bluesfest site in Byron Bay, announced, “Never have I presented a better festival than Boomerang. My heart is swelling with pride as we walk of this event site with our roots deeper in this country for what we have just experienced in the original peoples culture. The people who came to Boomerang shared our pride in our culture and we are better people for it. I saw thousands of cameras flashing during the opening ceremony and I know that in the years to come I am going to see many more thousands. Boomerang will come back and this is going to be one of Australia’s greatest festivals.” Noble points that the first Boomerang was more successful than the first Bluesfest. Gurrumul’s collaborator Michael Hohnen said, "Boomerang is a beautiful special festival, it warmed our collective hearts."
- Christie Eliezer
