This is what people love about
the Spirit Festival
Excellent festival highly professional
Wow great time thanks!
I had one of the best times of my life.. It was fantastic!!!
Spirit Festival was, Beaudifu!!!!
Well done.
deadly dancing!
Click here to download the 2012 Spirit Festival Program in PDF
National Aboriginal Cultural Institute Tandanya presents
SPIRIT FESTIVAL 2012 That's a wrap!
BIG BOLD and FULL OF SPIRIT - Spirit Festival 2012 shimmers in the heat
The heat was soaring in Adelaide in more ways than one and shimmering in an oasis of festival madness was the Spirit Festival South Australia's premier Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts and Cultural Festival. The Festival kicked off the Adelaide Fringe season with Big Bold and Sexy Diva Casey Donovan headlining. Queensland funk reggae outfit ZENNITH pulled the crowds in off the street joining the dancers who defied the early evening heat dancing to local band Kineman Karma.
In a Festival first Saturday night was given over to an evening of dance with the Spirit Dance Ceremony which featured over 100 dancers and singers from across the country. A very special evening of cultural significance as Kaurna dance group Paitya led by Kaurna cultural bearer Karl Winda Telfer performed a smoking ceremony to welcome all visitors to Palti Yerta (dance ground) in Kaurna country.
As a gesture of appreciation and a custom that connects Indigenous culture's songlines and trading routes across the nation, a formal exchange of gifts between Stephen Gadlabardi Goldsmith and son Jamie Ngungana Goldsmith from the Kaurna dance group Taikurtinna was performed by the visiting dance groups from the Torres Strait Islands and Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara dancers from Central Australia choreographed by Spirit Festival Artistic Director Gina Rings and enjoyed by a crowd of 2,000 people who not only sat under the seven sisters constellation on this barmy night but experienced this ages old songline as the Inma was performed in a unique collaboration between Anangu and Ngarrindjeri.
The writers program has grown exponentially in just one year and in 2012 two publications were launched A Handful of Sand an extraordinary editorial achievement by two of our finest poets, Ali Cobby Eckermann and Lionel Fogarty and The Tjanpi Desert Weavers, publication featuring many stories told by the Tjanpi artists themselves and a series of essays from key figures in Tjanpi's history. Dylan Coleman winner of the 2011 David Unaipon Award for Unpublished Indigenous Writers gave the key note address.
Big heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in Spirit Festival 2012! See you next year! Dates to be announced soon.
On behalf of Tandanya we wish to acknowledge and pay respects to the Kaurna people - the traditional owners of the country on which Tandanya stands and where we celebrate.
