Welcome

Welcome Message from the Chair

Hello and welcome to the ninth year of the Guringai Festival. This year's theme is star Dreaming to coincide with the Year of Astronomy.

Australia's Aboriginal people are arguably the world's first astronomers. Our complex systems of knowledge and beliefs about the heavenly bodies has evolved as an integral part of our culture, that has been handed down through song, dance and ritual for some 40,000 years. There are many traditional Dreaming stories about the relationships between ancestral beings and the sun, the moon, the stars and the planets.

We hope you enjoy this year's Guringai Festival and all the events it has to offer across the Northern Sydney region, the traditional homelands of the guringai people.

Susan Moylan-Coombs and
Caroline glass-Pattison
Co-Chairs, Guringai Festival Committee

About Guringai Festival

Acknowledgment of Country
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land, the Guringai people on whose land we now stand, we pay our respects to Elders past and present.

About Guringai Festival
Founded in 2001, the Guringai Festival aims to raise awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in the Northern Sydney region. The festival starts the day before Sorry Day on the 26 May through to the end of NAIDOC week, the second week in July each year.

The Festival involves ten councils, numerous reconciliation and community groups. Events range from workshops, art exhibitions, performances, films and talks.

The Guringai Festival received a Highly Commended project award in the 2007 Local Government and Shires Association Cultural Awards.

Front Cover Image
This image by Jessica Birk was selected from submissions for the 2008 and 2009 Guringai Festival design artist statement.

This image celebrates Northern Sydney's abundance of outdoor rock art galleries and the part they play within the whale dreaming song-line along the East Coast of Australia.

Whale imagery is found in many of the rock engraving sites around the Northern Sydney region. This reinforces a long living relationship with and responsibility to nurture the giants of the sea and to care for "country".

The layers surrounding the whale are symbolic of the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community groups within our region and the richness of cultural knowledge which a diverse community brings to an area.

Important Dates and Anniversaries

Nadioc Week - Honouring our Elders, Nurturing our Youth
Sunday 5 - Sunday 12 July 2009 Celebrates the survival of Indigenous Culture and the Indigenous contribution to modern Australia. The aim of the theme this year is to encourage our communities acknowledge the status of our Elders as leaders and role models for our youth www.naidoc.org.au

Reconciliation Week - See the person, not the stereotype
Wednesday 27 May - Wednesday 3 June 2009 celebrates the rich culture and history of the First Australians. It is the ideal time for everyone to join the reconciliation conversation and to think about how we can help turn around the disadvantage experienced by many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The United Nations proclaimed 2009 to be the "International Year of Reconciliation" www.nswrecon.com

Sorry Day
Tuesday 26 May 2009 Annual commemoration of the tens of thousands of Indigenous people who were forcibly removed from their families as children www.nsdc.org.au