9 June 2013 – Barunga Festival

We had lots more to enjoy at the festival today.  We started by heading to the oval and watching a few games of the various aboriginal teams competing at AFL.  It was bloody hot in the sun but we managed.  There was also a basketball competition going on nearby so we spent some time cheering them on too.  I was really surprised to see that many of the aboriginals were playing basketball on the outdoor (but undercover) court in long sleeve shirts underneath their team shirts and some in denim shorts and virtually all were bare foot pounding their feet on the concrete all day.  Around lunch time in the soaring heat, we pulled up our chairs and watched the spear throwing competition.  Various aged men were competing and they had to throw their spears using their woomera and try to hit a stuffed kangaroo which was standing at least 50 metres down the other end of the park.  Some of them went extremely close landing around their target, it was awesome to see these spears flying through the air.  We went back shortly afterwards as we needed a bit of reprieve from the scorching sun.  After a couple of hours break in the shade, Josh and I left the Nan and the kids at the van and went back in.  We watched a bit of the basket weaving and some painting, we also wanted to try our hand at making some damper but they’d pretty much packed it up for the day and staying away from the fire sounded like a good idea.  Instead we found a seat on the grass at the basketball and watched a few more women’s teams play.  Before long, Nan, Zoe and Sami wandered on down.  In between games, the kids were having a go at shooting hoops with some of the local aboriginal kids, but it wasn’t easy as they were using a small football.  We headed back and had a late lunch and early dinner so that we could take our chairs back to the concert area and wait for John Butler and Gurrumul to find their way to the stage.  There were thousands of people all set up for the concert – and a really nice mix of aboriginal and white people.  Everyone was quite friendly and watching John Butler live was incredible especially from the mosh pit with the girls.  However, Gurrumul was the crowd’s favourite.  He doesn’t say much, as he leaves that to his double bass player, but he sang many songs in both his native tongue and in English.  It was a fantastic night of entertainment!  Again, the shower at the end of the night also topped things off….