Aboriginal Dancing

Some people say the only culture you will find in Australia is a tub of Yoplait. After eight months of backpacking in this amazing country, I can tell you that ain't nothing but a lie. They also have vegemite and rainbow slushies. And how about the world famous Aussie drinking habits? They have wine in bags! What more do you need? Exactly. Belgian chocolate. At this stage I can sort of see myself committing violence in order to get my hands on a good old Belgian chocolate bar. 

Not that I. Would ever. Do that.

Talking about chocolate makes me forget the subject I actually wanted to get to: Aboriginal dancing. Let's not forget Australia is home of one of the oldest cultures in the world. I've always been interested in the Aboriginal traditions and I love to dance. You can imagine I was pumped with excitement when I got accepted as a volunteer at the Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival.

I can tell you, it wasn't like any other festival I've been to before. First of all, my feet were allright after spending six days in Laura. They even felt great. Soft and happy like little kittens. Which is strange because normally I can't even feel my feet from all the funky moves they have been performing. At Laura festival, I didn't dance. The sacred dance ground was only to be entered by the Aboriginal performers. Their traditional dances were powerful and impressive. They kicked up the dust and all the groups gave their best. And I sat down, watched, clapped and enjoyed the spectacular performances, but my feet were left itchy to move to the music themselves. 

Another difference was the colour of my body. I wasn't full of purple and blue bruises from bumping into things, people, trees or the floor because of the wine in my blood. Even stranger: I didn't drink anything but water during the whole festival. The no alcohol policy might have had something to do with that. 

But like any other festival, there were beautiful friends, dress-ups, mud baths and slushies.