Yapenya – Ceremonies

Blessing & Smoking Ceremony – Chill Stage & Market Stage – FRIDAY
We celebrate your arrival to our ancestral Country and open the festival with a Smoking Ceremony, song and dance to welcome all.

Our First Nations guests will offer blessings for the festival and together we will journey to the Market Stage for the Across Oceans Indigenous Ceremony. Opening this stage with insights and entertaiing wisdom is our Canadian First Nation Grandmother Malihatkwa, West Papuan Brothers in Arms and the Tumeke Kapa Haka of Te Hononga O Nga Iwi.

Opening Ceremony – Main Stage – SATURDAY
Ngulumbarra Ngarramilli Yapenya, the Opening Ceremony at the main stage will celebrate the coming together of many tribes from around Australia to honour the Rainbow Serpent Dreaming with sharing our unique cultures together in song, story and dance. This is where the Traditional Custodians officially Womin-djika (Welcome) you to the Country where the festival is celebrated.

Closing Ceremony – Chill Stage – MONDAY
The Closing Ceremony is when we all come back together to reflect on what we have learned and what we have shared at this gathering. We will talk, we will dance and we will give back to the land. Our journey together as a Rainbow family continues in separate ways from here, but with positive growth and the shedding of another skin.