The Laura Cultural Dance Festival was one of the few possibilities for us to experience Aboriginal Culture in Australia. A culture which has been removed from many areas in the county, a culture that remains hidden for most of the Whites in this country. The festival is held every second year and sees more participants as well as visitors every year.
Like in many other places in Australia, the peoples That had been living in the Cape York area for many thousands of years, have been decimated after the arrival of the Europeans by fights, sicknesses and deportation. The few Aborigines that managed to return to their traditional lands fight since then their own fight for the life of their culture, their way of traditional life. 1971 a small gathering of tribes happened for the first time - to practice and share their rituals in order to keep their traditions alive in the face of modern adversity. Since then this meeting happened every two years - up to 1981 at different places every time. At that time nobody spoke about an festival - it was an exchange of traditions between the indigenous people of northern Australia.
Now the Laura Cultural Dance Festival is probably the biggest festival of its kind with several hundred dancers - ageing from 4 to 64 years - and a least as many spectators - most of them Whites. Although we could also notice the touristic value and with that the rising commercial value, the festival is a very special way not only to see indigenous people living their culture but also to get in contact with them.
From midday Friday to Sunday evening we spent - camping between hundreds of equal-spirited at the Laura River - close to the little stage and the "danceground" in front of it. Here the different tribes and peoples appeared to show their traditional dances, every tribe having its own body painting, 
its own steps, its own music. Although the theme of the dances is often quite similar - the hunt for kangaroos, the dangers of crocodiles while fishing, the gathering of food - every dance is very unique. Sometimes only lead by rhythmic vocal sounds of the leader, sometime accompanied by a small chorus and didgeridoos, the performances are as diverse as the origins of the people. Besides tribes of Central Queensland, the Cape York Peninsula and Arnhem Land also a group from the Torres Strait Islands performed this year for the first time. This was one group where we noticed a major difference to other groups to the "real" Aborigines. (The Torres Strait Islanders suffered the same destiny like the indigenous people of Australia but have their roots in Melanesia and Polynesia, from where they originated some 2000 Years ago.)Also the structure of the performing groups were very different: some tribes showing up with more than twenty performers of every age, others only with young children led by a kind of dance teacher, others as an "old-men-club"
deeply assure of their tradition and performance.Equal to all of them was the excitement of their going public as well as their pride and pleasure to perform at Laura. Behind the stage all the time groups were practising their steps, painting their bodies or watching exactly
the dances of the other groups. Not only the exchange of culture was motivation to participate - the best performing group was to be selected - a not easy task for the judges, having the diversity of origin and cultures in mind!
The spectators could also participate in contests: a painting contest, a didgeridoo playing contest as well as a spear throwing contest were held aside of the dances. We found hardly time to visit all the stalls set up with snacks, meals or souvenirs for sale - the dances continued all day long. And with the sun going down and too little light on the danceground, the stage was lit and many diverse modern bands started playing, animating the spectators to show their way of dancing.
