Laura Quinkan Dance Festival- The Great Indigenous Dance Off

The Laura Quinkan Dance Festival is guaranteed to saturate your senses…..

It’s a three-day celebration where the indigenous communities of Cape York come together and share their rich culture and stories of the land through dance and song. BUT understand this, the Laura Quinkan Dance Festival is not refined, shortened or watered down to suit tourist’s sensibilities. It’s the REAL THING. Its Indigenous community pitted against Indigenous community. For them it’s an opportunity to involve all ages from lil’ ones to the elders, to compete and hopefully take home a coveted shield back to their mob.

Kulgoodah Dancers, Woorabinda

Coen Dancers, Cape York

Kulgoodah Dancers, Woorabinda

Of course, it’s not all about winning for the communities, it’s more than that. Not only do they get to showcase and celebrate their culture and songlines, through dance and their art but they also gain recognition from their peers. Accompanied by the rhythm of the didgeridoo, clap sticks and chanting, each dance troupe perform centre-stage on a dusty amphitheatre surrounded by an audience eager to learn more about the stories of their land.

All ages get involved, from youngsters that can barely walk through to the elders in the community who lead the dances and sing the stories, helping to pass down their traditions to the next generation. Occasionally multiple dance groups enter the amphitheatre and the audience is called upon to join in, learning how to shake a leg and rock the baby, dependant on what sex you are.

**The Dance Troupes perform centre stage in the Amphitheatre**

The Amphitheatre is part of the Festival Village, and nearby stands a large canopy where people gather. Surrounding are food trucks, market stalls - which sell genuine Aboriginal Art straight from the communities (no middle-man here) - as well as an Art Gallery to browse in. This is also where cultural workshops happen, where you can choose, sand and paint your own didgeridoo, try some weaving or even sing and dance along to the occasional jam session that happens under the big tent.

Didgeridoo workshop for the littlies

Loving the designs on the Didgeridoos

Workshops happened under the Big Canopy

Checking out all the cool designs

Better than a playground anyday

Smoothing the inside of the Didgeridoo

Cool art work on display

Amazing what can be made out of Ghost Nets

Plenty to choose from at the Food & Market Stalls

It’s an interesting crowd of people that attend the festival. Avid campers (often on their way to or from Cape York), young families, the Grey Nomads, backpackers, hippies plus of course all the indigenous people from the nearby communities. But this mix seems to work well. Whilst the days were filled with the traditional owners of the land performing, the nights were filled with the audience having their opportunity to get up and dance. Bands such as Mau Power, Zenith and Yothu Yindi took to the stage and on the final night you could see an eclectic mix of people dancing together in the ‘mosh pit’.

**The Pormpuraaw Traditional Dance Group take the stage & All ages get to perform in the dances**

**The dances take place on sacred Bora (ceremonial) ground**

Bora are ceremonial grounds where local tribes traditionally gather for important ceremonies, which often includes dance.

The journey to Laura is itself an adventure. From Cairns it’s a four-hour drive along (thankfully) a sealed highway, with a smattering of pubs and roadhouses along the way. Don’t forget to pull in at Bob’s lookout along the Mulligan Highway to get great views and a lay of the land that you’re driving through.

Camping is basic and amenities (such as showers and portaloos) are transported in to deal with the burgeoning number of people that descend to watch this unique Festival that is held biannually. Laura is a central meeting place for the indigenous people of Cape York and the Laura Quinkan Dance Festival is held on sacred Bora ground.

**Our camping set-up for the 3-day festival**

Nearby lies the UNESCO recognised Quinkan Rock Art which is estimated to be between 15,000 to 30,000 years old. It is one of the oldest and largest Indigenous Art Gallery in the world and is rated as one of the top 10 rock art sites.

**Split Rock can be explored without a guide…just remember to leave a donation**

Interpretive tours with traditional owners are available as well as a self-guided walk around Split Rock which requires a donation. Make sure you take some time out to visit whilst you’re in the area.

If you drive into Laura (15min north) check out the Quinkan Cultural Centre which is home to an interpretive display showcasing the history of the area and it covers a variety of aspects including Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal heritage, as well as the natural environment. You can book guided tours to the Rock Art sites at the centre.

Be aware that the Laura Quinkan Dance Festival is a dry affair with NO ALCOHOL 😱allowed in . Personally, I wasn’t sure how I was going to cope 😅. For me, chilling and having a few coldies 🍻 at the end of the day is all part of the camping adventure 🏕. But I have to admit, it proved to work well - friction was non-existent and once the evening festivities were out of the way pretty much everyone just crashed and burned….. 🥱😴 😆

The Wik Kugu Dancers from Aurukun

Shaking the Evil Spirits away

Good things to know:

The Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival first began in the 1980s and it is believed to be the longest running Aboriginal cultural festival in Australia
For more information and to BUY TICKETS, click HERE
This is a dry event!!!
Get there early to select a good camping site
The festival is held Biannually so book ahead. 2021 sold out on the last day
Take your chairs to the festival Amphitheatre as early as possible to nab a good spot!! Picnic blankets are a good ploy if you want to sit right up front
Food is available thanks to a variety of food trucks and some of them are traditional fair so make sure you give your taste buds a go
There’s a NGUMUMA TENT which is a safe & creative space for babies and where caregivers can relax
There’s a river to swim in if you’re keen

**Plenty of room to set up a great campsite**

It’s wise to BYO toilet paper as the portaloos get very busy….and if you can pack a portaloo of your own that’s even better 😁🧻🚽😉

The road to Laura from Cairns is sealed all the way and the journey takes an average of four hours
There is no mobile data or reception in the area. You’ll need to head north to the township of Laura which is only a 15-minute drive away. Don’t forget to get a beer at the pub whilst you’re there 🍻 😉
There’s opportunity to volunteer over the 4 days – you can contact the organisers HERE >> Laura Quinkan Dance Festival Helpers
It’s worth checking out the acclaimed rock art of the Quinkan country and the Quinkan Cultural Centre is where you can book guided tours to the Rock Art sites. At the Festival a bus runs every few hours to the Split Rock gallery for a guided tour. You can also visit Split Rock without the organised tour but be aware though there is a recommended donation to pay

Who did it better?

Thankfully the dancers were friendly

Behind the Scenes 🎬

One month prior to the Laura Quinkan Dance Festival, Tourism Events Queensland (TEQ) contacted me about the possibility of a family shoot at the festival. Naturally I was ecstatic. This event has been on my TO DO list forever……But being held biannually and right in the middle of the year during our June/July school holidays I just hadn’t managed to swing it….too many adventures….too little time……

⛵️🤿 🐢🐠🐋🌳🍃🦋🪲🐸🏕🎣🚤🏄🏻‍♀️💦💦

Anyway, there would be a film crew coming up from down south and someone from TEQ would be there to ensure the right imagery was being captured - the gist of the story was that this was a family-friendly event (which it totally is!!) and they wanted to capture how much FUN it can be for all ages.

YAAAY I thought, the Adventure Mumma team hasn’t stopped being of interest with Tourism Organisations, even though my kids are much older – now I have proper ‘teens’ – Mr 17 year old and Miss 15 year old. I knew however that the timing was going to be a tough call – the festival was smack bang in the middle of the June/July school holidays and we’re talking about pretty independent kids now - Mr 17 has bought his own car plus got an awesome job at Bad Fishy Jet Boating AND Miss 15 was starting a new job over the holidays.

A month out I propositioned the kids during family tea time…..

“SO, we’ve been invited by TEQ to attend the Laura Indigenous Dance Festival in a month’s time, which I think will be great because it will get the Adventure Mumma name out there again AND it’s been a long time since we’ve done something like this together. You guys are going to have the opportunity to be featured in a promotion by a Tourism Organisation again, [and to Miss 15] after all, aren’t you wanting to pursue a career in acting? Something like this would look great on your portfolio……So what do you think?”

Silence ensued 😶………….and Rob gives me that look across the table as if to say ‘I told you so’….

“I guess……….if you were to say the Laura Rodeo, now that would be another thing 🤠” Mr 17 replies.

More silence…………so Plan B came into play….

“And I’m happy to throw some dollars 💰💰your way for being part of the ’talent’ on this shoot. Let’s say $200 each, that’s $50 per day just to go camping and see something unique to Far North of Queensland.”

Reluctantly the teens agreed and we went ahead and signed all the contracts locking us in.

So the week of the Laura Festival arrives and what can possibly go wrong you ask? Damn you CoVid 😷🦠!! There’s a lockdown in South-East Queensland and the TEQ rep and film crew can’t fly out from Brizzie. BUT the Laura Qunican Dance Festival was definitely going ahead - Many of the aboriginals from the Cape York communities had arrived and were prepping for the BIG WEEKEND.

It was about this time when Mr 17, who is now massively independent, informs me that he has some ‘important’ marine training happening that weekend and won’t be able to come…..

“OMGAWD!! You can’t do this to me at the last minute. You’ve had a whole month so maybe you could’ve hinted to me that you couldn’t come…. We’ve signed papers and filled out forms!! What are you thinking.” I think by this time I was down on my knees begging 🥺🙏

“Don’t you understand mum, you’re ruining my career and standing in front of important training that I need in order to get my Coxwain’s!!” Mr 15

Needless to say all my pleading and begging and threats were hopeless and it meant that I had to inform TEQ that we were now a family of three….

“Oh that’s fine…” said the TEQ lass, mainly ‘cause she had been super busy focusing on pulling together a film crew at the very last minute that could do the job.

“The good news is I’ve booked a local photographer called Brad Newton & Jacinta from Cin Creations so we’re definitely going ahead….Oh, and by the way I’ve sent through the guidelines on ‘How to Dress’ for the shoot so just let me know if you’ve received that okay”

AND reading through the dress guidelines that night (before we hit the road), made us realise that none of the clothes we owned really fitted the brief 👗👚👕🩳 🤭

DAY 1

The day arrives to head north and Miss 15’s Induction Day for her new job, of course, falls right on this day. Now we were looking at a 5pm departure and setting up in the dark, which I’ve never been a great fan of……

And as soon as we pick up Miss 15 the verbal whinging starts……

“Oh, is this seriously going ahead?? Don’t you think I should get Josh’s share of the dollars because he bailed?? How far away is this place that we’re going to??

Seriously!!! There is no reception at all…… OMGAWD!!! What am I going to do…??”

Fan-Bloody-Tastic!!! Especially when you’ve got a whole 4-hours of driving ahead listening to this……PLUS the struggle with tents and pegs and all the rest of it in the dark when we arrived. BUT kudos to her, she was always pleasant and amicable towards the film crew and did everything that they needed to get the shots……..we just copped it from our end 🤨

DAY 2

The next morning it was all on. Our campsite was only a few minutes walk from the main Amphitheatre BUT as we tucked into brekkie we watched as a horde of campers headed past us carting chairs and blankets. By the time we ambled across, there was definitely no front seats available.

**It’s shoulder to shoulder at the Laura Dance Festival ‘cause no one wants to miss out**

NOTE: Make sure you organise your seating early on.

Us being at the back wasn’t so great for our film crew - How were they going to get shots of our expressions as the Dance Troupes swayed on past. Thankfully Brad and Jacinta were too focused on capturing the spirit of the dance anyway to worry.

AND thankfully I worked out that if you waited long enough you could edge yourself closer and closer to the prime seats. In the corner of my eye I could see Miss 15 tapping away and watching the dances with great interest 🙂

**Charlie enjoying the different dance performances**

Later, we managed to redeem ourselves in our daughter’s eyes as we travelled into Laura that afternoon to enjoy a coldie or two and yes, find some digital reception. Fortunately we got there just in time for Miss 15 NOT to lose any of her ‘streaks’………it’s a Snapchat kinda thing apparently……

The Laura Pub offers a sanctuary for many travellers of the Cape York region (plus digital reception 😉) — **The Laura Pub offers a sanctuary for many travellers of the Cape York region (plus digital reception** 😉)

DAY 3

Pulling on what had become our ‘uniform’ for the whole weekend - mainly because most of our clothes were unsuitable for the shoot - I was just thankful that the accompanying smell couldn’t be captured by the cameras.

Backstage getting groupy pics (gotta love a Media Pass 😉) — **Backstage getting groupy pics (gotta love a Media Pass** 😉)

This was the day when we were really pulled into action - posing with the dance troupes backstage, getting photos of us getting photos of them, watching the kids playing in the creek and probably the biggest highlight for us, going Behind-The-Scenes (got to love those media passes) and hanging out with the Yarrabah State School around their campfire .

**Yarrabah Youth showing off their skills**

It didn’t take us long before we joined the mob circling the campfire and shuffling the dust up. Miss 15 learnt how the women dance and how they hold their arms, as if carrying a baby. For Rob it was a real workout as he bounced around the campfire with knees bent employing his arms to mimic the men. Hysterical to say the least 😆And me? I was desperately trying to keep the rhythm going with the clap sticks. I’m pretty sure we managed to entertain them more than they entertained us.

Just before we headed off Rob turned around to one of the men who was pretty fit looking and said…

“ WOW. I’ve used a whole lot of muscles that I didn’t know I had.”

“Yeah Bro. I play and train with the Yarrabah Sea Hawks [a local A Grade Rugby Team] and even I’m sore after a weekend dancing with the mob” was his reply.

DAY 4

So the final day arrived and by now we were pretty keen to hit the road. We had teed up a departure time of around 10-ish which our film crew had to push out as they needed to capture a few more angles of the dancers to cover all bases. You can imagine how delighted my daughter was by now……NOT!! Trust me. By now the whingeing was starting to hit a Crescendo.

Finally we hit the road in a convoy, and because we had no footage of the drive up, we needed to capture some shots on the way south to complete the story. We got drone footage of our car entering the Laura Quinkan Dance Festival, some great pics of us getting selfies at the Laura sign, footage of us at Bob’s lookout on the Mulligan Highway, looking out across the plains - all of these of course took a couple of takes to nail - BUT probably the straw that ‘almost’ broke the camel’s back came later, capturing drone footage of us driving along a straight bit on the Mulligan Highway. Damn those trucks and 4WD’s and caravans who also wanted to share the road with us. Eventually we got the shot. And as we returned to the film crew with fingers crossed, hoping that this would be a ‘wrap’ Brad said…..

“ Just one more…….”

AAAARGGH!! Thankfully it was just that Far North Queensland sense of humour of his and we got the thumbs up to hit the road home.

“That’s great. Just out of curiosity how much of this will you give to TEQ?” I ask

“Well, they’ll get all my shots for their library which will be quite a few, after all I’m pretty sure I took over 2000 shots just of that 2-year-old who joined in on one of the dances. And film wise? It’s two 15-second grabs and a 30-second grab that we’ll be giving them.”

HOLY S#%T!! If you do manage to spot us in this promo please let us know 😂😂😂

AND 72 hours after setting off, we arrived home…….After a quick unpack, Miss 15 headed straight to her room and locked herself in…..

SO, do I recommend the Laura Quinkan Dance Festival as a family-friendly event? ABSOLUTELY!!! I would however suggest that you get your kids up there whilst they’re still relatively young. We saw loads of campers with really young kids and tweens having a ball.….

AND how could we have done things differently? Well, I’m pretty sure things would’ve been easier if Big Bro HAD come along. If you are taking teens up there, I suggest you go with another family or at least take one of their friends. For us it was just too last minute to find a friend for Miss 15 that was free that weekend….

You never know though, you may have birthed one of those rarity’s who aren’t connected by the hip to their phone….I know we had that a couple of years back before they discovered Instagram, Snapchat AND TikTok….NOW it’s a whole new ball game……..😅😉

Please Note: We travelled to Laura as guests of Tourism Events Queensland BUT all views, opinions and photos in this article are 100% my own unless otherwise stated.

SO!!! Have you been?? Are you keen?? >> Pop your suggestions or questions below & I’ll try & answer them as good as I can…..

ALSO, if you have some pointers on how you can get your ‘teens’ more involved and enthusiastic 🤔over cultural festivals like this one feel free to share……😉