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Māmā Mihirangi and the Māreikura
Sounds weaving like a dream… Māmā Mihirangi’s vocals and electronic loops waft through the huge Crossroads tent at the Byron Bay Bluesfest 2019, seamlessly blending ancient Māori culture into modern performance art.
There is nothing quite like a Māori haka to get your festival day started!
The music clip attached is a prayer: E te Ariki – “Lord”, but the Aotearoa (NZ) Māori artists and activists Māmā Mihirangi & The Māreikura had started the set – first up on the last day of the five-day Easter-long-weekend Byron Bay Bluesfest – together in a haka for the female descendants of the Mother Goddess. It got my blood pumping and cheered me up enormously!
I love that Bluesfest Byron Bay includes First Nations music in its program in two ways: firstly, by defining “blues and roots” music broadly enough to include a smattering of traditional music from around the world; and secondly, by concurrently hosting the three-day Boomerang Festival.
The Boomerang Festival is billed as a “global indigenous arts & culture event aimed at Aboriginal access for audiences wishing to engage with a quality, unique, true Indigenous experience.” First launched in 2013, it includes music, dance, crafts, story-telling, visual arts, and healing.
As a Bluesfest participant, I have access to as many of the Boomerang activities as I can fit into my broader festival experience: I always sample some of the music and dance (eg: Boomerang 2016; Back to the Roots; Australian Guitars and Strings; Blues Women Rock; Songs of Joy and Protest).
This year was no different: I revisited some old favourites and found a few new ones.
Do join me!
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Boomerang Flags
Around the sandy dance-circle and high over the tent-tops, Indigenous flags fly in honour of the Boomerang Festival of Indigenous arts and culture.
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Tibetan Singer behind Barbed Wire
It seems symbolic somehow, to see displaced Tibetan musician, Tenzin Choegyal, looking small as he sits singing and story-telling in the sand-circle.
Rako Pasefika
I have enjoyed these wonderful performers before (see: Boomerang 2016). Originally from Rotuma, a volcanic Fijian island, the group was formed to safeguard and share cultural practices.
Rako on Percussion
As artisans of the Pacific, they also practice and teach traditional skills including bark cloth (Tapa/ Masi) printing, making coconut sinnet (Magi magi) and weaving. These aptitudes are reflected in their instruments and costuming.
Rako Pasefika Dancer
On Saturday afternoon the weather changed, …
Dancing in the Rain
… but the onset of rain couldn’t dampen that smile …
Conquest
… or diminish the power of the dance.
Hips Swinging
Rotuma is at the crossroads of the Micronesian, Melanesian, and Polynesian cultures, and the influence can be heard in the musical rhythms and seen in the dance and costume styles.
The Queen of Cool
Billed as the “Queen of Loops”, Māmā Mihirangi produces contemporary Māori music, blending ancient chants and traditional harmonies with modern instruments and stories.
A Māreikura
The Māreikura are Māmā Mihirangi’s traditional female dancers …
Traditional Weaponry
… who performed the haka I mentioned in my introduction, and demonstrated symbolic uses of traditional weapons.
Poi Dance
Poi dancing is a longstanding Maori tradition.
Poi and the Māreikura
Wahine (female) dancers perform with the poi to improve their flexibility, strength and coordination, …
Ferocious Feminine Power
… but it is not hard to imagine poi being used as weapons!
Māmā Mihirangi
The whole performance (which, as you can tell by the changes of costumes, I attended twice) was delightfully engaging.
Malu Kiai Mura Buai – Shark Bait
Meanwhile, back at the sand circle, a dance troupe performs a story about shark bait.
Malu Kiai Mura Buai – Shark Bait
Originally from Boigu Island in the Torres Strait, this traditional dance group is based in Brisbane. I love watching the little ones shadowing their elders, …
“Baby Shark”
… but all I could think of was the annoyingly-repetitive children’s song “Baby Shark – doo doo doo doo doo doo.”
Girls of the Malu Kiai Mura Buai
Two days later when I was at the sand circle, the young women were preparing to perform …
Welcome Flower
… their welcome song and dance.
Welcome Dance
Malu Kiai Mura Buai Warrior
After the Welcome Dance, the men return to wave their spears …
Warrior Spirit
… and show off their warrior spirit.
Dobby
Only 24, rapper, drummer and workshop facilitator, Dobby, is a recent recipient of the prestigious Peter Sculthorpe Fellowship for composition. Identifying as Filipino and Aboriginal, Dobby is an accomplished musician, with a delightfully enjoyable stage presence which carries his clever lyrics and powerful messages.
Tenzin Choegyal
Outside in the sand circle, Tenzin Choegyal – a regular Boomerang participant – sings his original songs expressing pain over the loss of his Tibetan homeland and cultural heritage. One of his songs, a prayer based on the 8th Century classic text: The Tibetan Book of the Dead, is attached below.
Tenzin Choegyal
The audience was silent and self-reflective as they listened with rapt attention.
Benny Walker
Another Boomerang-return favourite, Benny Walker, a Yorta Yorta man from regional Victoria, is easy on the ears and eyes.
“Dad Jokes” and Beautiful Songs
I returned for another set the next day; I just love listening to his rich voice and slow, bluesy rhythms. “Stay in my Arms” deserves to be a love classic.
Mojo Jujo
Award-winning Mojo Juju Ruiz de Luzuriaga’s most recent R’n’B/hip-hop/soul album tells stories of her Filipino–Wiradjuri family heritage.
Drummer Steve “T-Bone” Ruiz de Luzuriaga
Drummers don’t feature in many photos because they often hide behind their kit out of the lights at the back, which was why I was so pleased to find Mojo Juju’s brother lit in such an interesting manner …
Mojo Juju
… when I caught a second set on the last day of Bluesfest.
The Mission Songs Project
Jessie Lloyd, with her Mission Songs Project, was a fitting end to my experience of this year’s Boomerang Festival: in the 1900s, Aboriginal people were taken out of their traditional communities and relocated into church-run “Mission” settlements and state-run native camps.
Deline Briscoe, Jessie Lloyd, and Emma Donovan
Jessie has spent over two years traveling, researching, and collecting the songs that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in these settlements, reserves, and native camps, sang about their daily lives. With some of Australia’s finest musicians, she has been singing these songs around the country in what are extremely moving performances.
And that is the beauty of music, isn’t it?
It builds bridges across time and culture, and helps bring “the other” closer to “us”.
And, it makes us feel.
To the music!
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