Juno Adamson
Yirrakala Mob at Tuntable Downs.

I think it was around 1985 I was in Nimbin  ready to meet up with Wandjuk Mirika touring with Yirrakala Dancers. Graham Dunstan has organised a Fair in Lismore at the showground where a large gathering was camped for the weekend.

Chris Mc Quiggan  from The Aboriginal Arts Board has organised the tour, the Yirrakala Dancers were to perform at Lismore School , Cabbage Tree Island and many other schools in the area. It was a way favored by Traditional Communities in the north to introduce Culture to Australian kids.

Come Sunday morning Chris McQuiggan says to me  "Juno , I have to go back to Sydney for an Arts Board Meeting , will you handle the tour for the next week? Great, I'll see you in Newcastle next week"  He gave me the tour itinerary, some money , off he went.

I went over to Graham Dustan's camp  to check in with him and tell him this news, Graham said  where will you all stay, this Festival ends tonight  Indeed it was a very real question. We went around to some people who lived at Tuntable Falls , a woman I think called Dianne  kindly offered us her house on the left side of the mountain. So it was by Sunday night Yirrakala Dancers and myself where settled in a lovely Balinese hand made house on Tuntable Falls.

Soon people came by offering food. Others came to visit naked. Others came offering something to smoke. Two Cultures one ancient  one new but full of inquiry and memory had encountered each other in a very personal way.

That night after a hearty meal, The Dancers still in their Ceremonial white paint , as the new Agers gathered at our new camp , the Songmen started to sing, clap sticks beat out their rhythms across the valley, and so it when on until the sun rose.

Next night , same thing again. New friendships we re made,  new understandings shared as each mob tried to tell each other about their lives and how they lived it.

The Dancers were having such a great time that enthusiasm for the grueling tour of performances waned a little.

Somehow I managed to persuade a few school to come together for their performance. We did go to Cabbage Tree Island and received a very warm  welcome & response there too.

One problem  though was the food. Tuntable mob were all vegetarian. Yirrakala mob liked meat and fish. The Elders kept asking for fried chicken, their usual traveling food.

So I told this to our hosts. They decided that if that was what the Songmen asked of them if they would deliver it. So it was that the Dancers from Yirrakala watched in amazement from the balcony of that lovely handmade house . They were falling about with laughter as the New Agers chased a bullock around the paddock for some time. At last he was caught.

The following night we all went down to Tuntable School for a feast of red meat and vegetables. It was quite a night. Each mob dances and sang for each other, late into the night.

Next day it was time for farewells, hugs, exchange of gifts, some tears. All the way to Newcastle on the bus The Dancers and the Songmen said:

Ò Good Mob, real good mob , those people at Tuntable Downs, we were sorry to leave them . Then they would tell the story about the bullock again and the whole bus would shake with laughter.

Juno Gemes-2003
Juno Adamson