Gummilaroi Yanni Yulidgi takes great pleasure in being able to bring the beauty of Aboriginal Culture to the world. The traditional dances and ceremony presented are representations of Dreaming stories and ceremony.
The Dreaming of Australian Aboriginal people tell of the era of creation when the world and all the features of the land were formed by Ancestral Beings, and as the land is continually changing the Dreaming continues. These Ancestral Beings sometimes assumed animal or human form or appeared as forces of nature. They interacted with one another and left their distinctive tracks in the form of hills, rivers, water holes and other features of the landscape, wherever they traveled. Ancestral Beings also established laws for human interaction and proper conduct in Aboriginal society.
Stories of the Ancestors have been passed down for countless generations in song and dance. Dance styles vary across Australia, and is a telling example of the diversity in traditional Aboriginal culture.
Gummilaroi Yanni Yulidgi’s dances are about connecting to spirituality and the land, hunting and gathering food, and family life. They paint their bodies with ocher (soft stones ground up) to depict their totems and clan affiliations. Gummilaroi Yanni Yulidgií¹s costumes consist of kangaroo skin belts or woven hair belts, and headdresses decorated with Emu feathers, seeds, beads and shells. The men wear lap lap (a cotton loincloth) and the women wear black dresses underneath their belts. They also use spears, boomerangs, coolamons, traditional dance sticks, and other artifacts to tell the stories through their dances.
Gummilaroi Yanni Yulidgi use boomerangs, clap sticks, didjeridu and body percussion to add the music to their dances. The didjeridu is a branch of a tree that has been hollowed out by termites; the branch is cut down and cleaned. A mouthpiece is created using native bees wax, and the instrument is played by blowing into it using recycled breathing. The didjeridu is only played by Aboriginal men, and is not a traditional instrument of the Gummilaroi people, having been traded into the nation in fairly recent times. Hence only some of Gummilaroi dances have the didjeridu as an accompaniment.
Gummilaroi Yanni Yulidgi also present various workshops, lectures and activities including Traditional life and culture, Contemporary History and impact of colonization including The Stolen Generations, Native Title and Land Rights, Health etc. Original Theater, Children¹s Activities including Dreaming Stories, ocher face painting, arts and crafts, Artifact and tool making and demonstrations, Boomerang throwing, Traditional fire making, Installation art, Art exhibitions, Museum quality exhibitions.
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
