GEGAC continues to provide more opportunities for cultural education and workshops to strengthen and celebrate Aboriginal cultural practices in community.
This week we hosted an Aboriginal dance workshop for men, the first we’ve been able to do for quite a while.
More than a dozen fellas of all ages joined Robert Bamblett for an Aboriginal dance workshop at the GEGAC Elders Lounge on Monday, where they learned some of the basic dance expressions and themes that are shared by Aboriginal communities across Australia.
And on Tuesday Robert returned to GEGAC to lead dance workshops for our Boorai at Dala Yooro Kindergarten, the children swaying and bouncing around the Cultural Room making the movements of the kangaroo, the emu, the eagle and the crocodile.
They were the first in what will be an ongoing series of dance workshops for both men and women we’ll be hosting at GEGAC over the coming months.
Aboriginal dance workshops for men will be held Monday and Tuesday next week, and then every Monday for several weeks after that.
Aboriginal dance workshops for women, led by Alice Pepper, will be held April 28, May 12, May 26, June 9 and June 23.
To register for the workshops, or if you’d just like to receive text updates on when they will be, fill in the form at the bottom of this page.
Alana Solomon, a member of our Cultural Team that was formed last year, said community had been asking for dance workshops for quite a while, and there was great excitement at GEGAC now that they’d be happening on a regular basis.
“For those of us that grew up around GEGAC, the dancing was something we always remembered,” she said.
“It’s really important to us that GEGAC is a place where Aboriginal culture is seen and felt and celebrated, and we know that is important to community. These dance workshops are just one of the ways we are responding to what community is telling us they want to see at GEGAC.”
GEGAC’s Executive Director of Culture and Deputy CEO Josh Tuiono said this week that practising and celebrating our cultural heritage and identity was one of the key pillars of GEGAC’s Strategic Plan.
“The Cultural Framework that we put in place last year is more than just an organisational document,” Josh said. “It’s an expression of our ambitions as a community to deepen our shared connection to spirit, family and country.”
“These dance workshops, the regular yarning circles, the formation of the Cultural Team, our investments in cultural activities and education, the Community Advisory Committee… I look around now and I see so many deadly things that are happening out of the Cultural Framework that will have a positive and lasting impact on GEGAC and this community.”
