Our Kooly Deadly Kids Dance group facilitated by Jessy from Nulungu Dreaming were invited to perform at the Eel Festival in Parramatta on the 7th March 2021.
The name ‘Parramatta’ is commonly translated to ‘the place where the eels lie down.’ The Eel Festival celebrates the Eel and its significance to the local Barramuttagal people, who would gather in autumn to trade goods and share stories. This festival is about learning, engaging with, and celebrating Aboriginal Culture. The day also included boomerang painting, weaving, Darug language workshops and a live eel display.
The dancers from our deadly dance group were very excited as for some this was there very first performance. The day started with an Acknowledgement to Country by Jessy who then shared some of his own stories, followed by a smoking ceremony performed by Uncle Wes.
We were so proud of our dance group who provided an incredible performance. Once the kids had performed, our Aboriginal Community Worker, Jen took the group to look around at Aboriginal artifacts and traditional Aboriginal homewares. The group listened to beautiful dreamtime stories by Uncle Wes before it was time to go home.
The dancers told us that their favourite part of the day was learning more about Aboriginal culture and listening to the dreamtime stories.
If you would like to find out more about the Kooly Deadly Kids Dance group, please call Jen on 02 4706 0280.
We hope you enjoy watching some of Kooly Deadly Kids Dance group performance at the Eel Festival below: