Yabun 2021 — Online

Overview

Yabun Festival is an annual event held on January 26 at Victoria Park in Camperdown, on Gadigal Land. It's the largest one-day celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture in Australia.

This year's festival will be a closed event due to COVID-19 gathering restrictions. Despite this, it'll be more accessible than ever, as it will be live streamed online, allowing people from across Australia and the world to tune in.

This year, Yabun (which means "music to a beat" in Gadigal language) is taking place across three venues. The Yabun Stage, located at the Seymour Centre, will host performances from 12–5pm, featuring the likes of Vic Simms, Barkaa, Emma Donovan and Kobie Dee. As well as being live streamed, the event will have a small crowd in attendance — tickets can be won in the lead up to the event via Koori Radio.

At its usual home of Victoria Park, Corroboree will feature a Welcome and Smoking Ceremony, as well as dance performances from groups Gawura, Koomurri, Buuja Buuja, Gomeroi Dancers and Ngaran Ngaran. It'll be live streamed from 11am–4pm.

The Speak Out stage will be live streamed from the New Law Building at the University of Sydney from 12.30–4.30pm. Speak Out will host three panel discussions on themes of love, justice and success, with panelists including Pastor Ray Minniecon and Lynda June Coe.

Another core part of the annual festival is the market stall, which have been taken online, too. Here, you can shop for art, jewellery, food and drink from storeowners that would usually set up within the festival. You can also shop for merchandise from the past three years of Yabun and support the festival and Koori Radio by donating to help ensure both continue to operate for years to come.

To access the live-stream, head to yabun.org.au.

Top image: Yabun Festival 2017