This year when Bluesfest Byron Bay opens on March 24 it will officially include ‘Boomerang’, a new world festival for all Australians, and the brainchild of one of Australia’s most important cultural custodians – Rhoda Roberts.

Back in 1997, when Rhoda Roberts delivered the third Rex Cramphorn memorial lecture at Sydney’s Belvoir Street theatre, after her highly successful stint as Artistic Director of the Festival of the Dreaming, an audience member asked her a pertinent question – was there, she was asked, a need for future Aboriginal festivals.

“Yes,” Roberts replied, “I think there is a need, because you only have to look at all the festivals that come out and the level of indigenous works in them. There’s very, very rarely collaborative work…so I think that there is a need for a biennial festival, a community or indigenous festival, particularly if it has the collaborative nature of the works.”

Sixteen years and many gigs later, Roberts saw the realisation of those long-ago words as Artistic Director of the Boomerang Festival which took place on the Bluesfest site at Tyagarah in 2013. This year, in 2016, with Boomerang fully incorporated into the Bluesfest program, Roberts has finally managed to achieve what she wanted – a funded festival which will allow her to showcase Indigenous arts from around the country to the hundreds of thousands of people who visit Bluesfest.

Harvest Café owner Tristan Grier, Bluesfest Director Peter Noble, Boomerang Festival director Rhoda Roberts. Front: Belle Budden, Delta Kay and Dinewan at the Crowdfunding launch in December 2015.

It hasn’t been easy – crowdfunding efforts fell short, but where many of us would simply have given up, Roberts did what she has so often done – she dug deep into her creative and personal resilience.

Roberts is used to a road paved with difficulties – both personal and professional. A Bundjalung woman from Widjabul country, who grew up in Lismore, she started her working life as a nurse. “I originally wanted to be a journalist,” she says, “but my mother was adamant that I should know my place – who did I think would even employ an Aboriginal girl? I was used to being called a ‘little darkie’ – even by my teachers – and I was told right from the beginning not to get too big for my boots.”

Roberts late father, Frank Roberts Jnr, was a minister with the Church of Christ, her mother Muriel, who was not Aboriginal met Frank at church. They married and had two sons, Mark and Philip, and twin daughters, Rhoda and Lois, moving to Lismore when the children were small.

“The local community would think my mother was this Christian woman who had adopted these little Aboriginal children,” says Roberts, “then she’d tell people that we were actually her children and their reactions would change completely.”

So their ‘safe’ futures were settled – nursing for Rhoda, and hairdressing for Lois. Working at Canterbury hospital, Rhoda looked forward to visits from her twin, who was as extroverted as Rhoda was introverted. Then tragedy struck just before their 21^st birthday when Lois had a car accident, and was given only a few days to live. Their father insisted that the life-support machine be kept on, and the next day the doctors discovered brain activity. “Unfortunately the brain damage and strokes she suffered meant she became a bit of a lost soul,” says Roberts. “I was incredibly protective of her, but it wasn’t an easy life for her.”

Lois Roberts – Rhoda’s twin sister went missing in 1998.

For Roberts, one thing nursing gave her was the ability to travel. She lived and worked in London for five years, and once she even gave Princess Margaret a lung wash. Eventually the NHS under Margaret Thatcher’s iron rule became too depressing, and Roberts returned to Sydney, determined this time to become involved in the arts scene she’d always felt so drawn towards. “I enrolled in a an acting course alongside Ernie Dingo,” she says, “and I volunteered for Aboriginal community radio.”

From small seeds mighty gum trees grow. Roberts was the first Aboriginal presenter on prime-time television, fronting SBS’s First in Line. The first time I ever saw Roberts was in the original production of Louis Nowra’s Radiance, and she literally shone, in a role written specifically for her. She went on to become a host of Deadly Sounds, an indigenous music and lifestyle show; she worked with the current affairs program, Vox Populi, and when SOCOG was formed, she was appointed director of the Festival Dreaming. From that appointment came the prize gig as Artistic Director of the indigenous opening section of the Sydney Olympics opening ceremony.

On the face of it, the nineties were an amazing decade professionally, even though, as Roberts says, “racism was never far away. I received death threats when I was appointed to the Festival of the Dreaming; human faeces were left on my doorstep when I was appointed to the opening segment at the Olympics. Remember this was the time of Pauline Hanson, and for every supporter of Aborigines there was an equal amount – or more – of racists.”

But despite the obstacles Roberts career flourished, although her personal life was more difficult. In 1992 Roberts had married actor Bill Hunter, and together they raised Lois’s daughter, Emily, due to Lois’s inability to look after a child. Hunter, it was well-known, was a big drinker, and gradually the differences between them – Robert’s desire to have a settled home-life versus Hunter’s peripatetic and often chaotic actor’s existence, saw the marriage begin to unravel.

Then in 1998, tragedy struck – Lois went missing, having last been seen hitching in Nimbin, and despite extensive searching there was no news, until January 8, 1999 when Lois’s body was discovered in the Whian Whian State Forest. The family was devastated, and for Rhoda the idea that her twin had suffered a painful death was unbearable. “I knew somehow I had to keep going,” she says, “and that my way was to continue to be as creative as I could be, and to create collaborations that connect us – the contemporary and the traditional, black and white.”  (The story so moved director Ivan Sen that in 2007 he made a documentary, A Sister’s Love, in which Rhoda explored the terrain of grief and loss – even visiting the site where her sister’s body was found.)

The overwhelming success and accolades of the Awakening segment led to a more and more creatively complex career, and these days Roberts juggles her part-time job as Head of Indigenous Programming at the Sydney Opera House, as well as hosting a new radio program, Deadly Voices from the House, with her job as Artistic Director of Boomerang.

Archie Roach will be playing at Bluesfest, and will be In Conversation with Rhoda Roberts.

“I’m extremely proud of what we’ve done,” she says. “We did the first festival in 2013 entirely self-funded, and this is the first year we’ve received funding. Bluesfest director Peter Noble has always believed in Aboriginal culture, and in reconciliation on the ground. His invitation for Boomerang to be included in Bluesfest has created a win-win situation for our artists – they can develop new audiences, plus show how culutural individualism and integration is possible.”

It’s not just musicians that will be presenting material. Roberts has curated an exciting program of events – In Conversations, workshops, weaving, dancing, art and healing, just for starters. “We have established people such as George Negus chairing talks; we have the 2015 Young Environmentalist of the Year, Amelia Telford, who is a Lismore girl; I’m doing an In Conversation with Archie Roach, who is also appearing on the main Bluesfest stage, and we have 52 dancers coming from the Torres Strait Islands,” she says. “I just love the idea of people kicking back at Bluesfest and being able to watch and absorb so much amazing material.”

Amelia Telford – Young Environmentalist of the Year for 2015 will be appearing at Boomerang.

As if running a major festival program and a job were not enough, Roberts is also involved in an artistic project very close to her heart. She’s co-directing a new play, Three Brothers with NORPA Artistic Director Julian Louis.

“The play is inspired by the Bunjalung creation story,” Roberts explains. “But it’s a very modern-day story of three brothers from the Northern Rivers – the family’s surname is Rivers, and we have three rivers that surround the area. Do you know that Aborigines on average attend 15 funerals a year? That is an extraordinary statistic. It’s normal for us to go to funerals of people in their early forties, and for many of us we are cloaked in a kind of trauma around the magnitude of loss in our community.”

What Roberts, and other cultural leaders, including curator Djon Mundine who is also involved in the project, are seeing is the sadness of the elders that the songlines are being lost. “We have no succession planning,” she says, “no leadership discussions – and we have to do this. As we move towards 2017 and constitutional reform it’s a perfect time to have a play that deals with these complex nuances.”

Not that it will all be dark material. “Far from it,” says Roberts. “The Bunjalung are rich in dances and physical movement, and the text will be full of humour and wonderful language. It’s allowing us to have real community engagement, and to work with such great people as Djon and the writer Melissa Lucashenko.”

Rhoda Roberts and her husband Stephen Field.

As Roberts picked up the pieces after the loss of her sister and her marriage, she discovered within herself not just an ability to dig deep, but also a burning desire to continue to create cultural connection, but at the same time to ‘belong’. “I’m a North Coast girl,” she says. “It’s where my family is, and so many years ago I bought a hundred acres at Jackie Bulbin Flat near New Italy, and in 2004 we moved up here.”

The ‘we’ is her husband, farmer, stonemason and landscape designer Stephen Field, Lois’s daughter Emily, now 22, as well as the two children the couple have together Jack, 17, and Sarah, 16.

As Roberts continues to expand her creative wings, including the next phase of planning some big discussions at the Opera House for May 27, Referendum Day, and a soon-to-be-announced new project, it strikes me that the overwhelming humility, work ethic and wisdom of this constantly high achiever makes her one of the most important custodians of Aboriginal culture in Australia today. Thank goodness the little Lismore girl got  ‘too big for her boots’, and may many follow her.

Boomerang – a new world festival for all Australians will be on as part of Byron Bay Bluesfest from March 24-28. For more information go to: https://www.boomerangfestival.com.au/

The post Rhoda Roberts on collaboration, connection and culture appeared first on .

Local Bluegrass group The Wilson Pickers.

If you’re one of the unlucky ones that left your run to buy a Byron Bay Writers’ Festival ticket too late, don’t despair – there’s plenty on this weekend – and  a veritable smorgasboard of events during August.

The Bangalow BBQ & Bluegrass Festival only started last year, but it was a crowd-pleaser from the start, and so it’s not surprising to see that it’s already grown, with a great line-up of musos and bands from far and near, including The Wilson Pickers, The Company and Green Mohair Suits. It’s on today, Saturday August 8 at the Bangalow Showgrounds from 10.o0 am, and tickets are available at the gate.  Kids under 18 are free, which makes it a cheap family day out.  Great food, great music, great weather…enjoy.

In the meantime, if the white noise of writers and music gets too much, up at Tweed Heads, there’s the 17th Tweed Antiques and Collectables Fair, which runs all day on August 8 and 9, at the Tweed Heads Civic Centre, Brett Street, Tweed Heads.  You never know, you might just pick up a bargain…and be back in the Shire in time for the next session.

Next weekend – August 14 – 16, the hills are alive with a different sound of music with the Bangalow Music Festival for 2015.  The Festival is celebrating its 14th year, and it’s 20 years since Creative Director Tania Frazer started the highly successful Southern Cross Soloists chamber music ensemble.  This year’s festival explores the connections between past and present – and celebrates the promise of a bright future. Artists appearing include Piers Lane, Karin Schaupp and William Barton, as well as members of Southern Cross Soloists – and international visitor, UK conductor Rainer Hersch.  The Festival kicks off on Thursday night, August 13, with the Festival Prelude at the A&I Hall.

Comic and musician Rainer Hersch brings his one-man show to the Byron at Byron for the Bangalow Music Festival.

Tickets range from the Platinum Subscription of $450pp to single concert tickets for $55 – try your luck at the A&I Hall next weekend call Southern Cross Soloists on 07 3833 7260 or email [email protected] or visit www.southernxsoloists.com

Suvira McDonald’s ‘Lost River’.

If you’re in town for the Music Festival, take a little time out to follow this year’s North Coast Mud Trail, and unearth your local potter – or even perhaps, your inner potter.  Visit 10 studio potters in nine beautiful Northern Rivers locations, catch a workshop, demonstration or artist talk – and buy your first Christmas presents.

Potters include the incredibly talented multi-disciplinary arts practitioner Suvira McDonald who is throwing open his Federal studio; the dynamic duo of ceramcists Karen Jennings and Jenn Johnston at their Tooheys Mill Road studio in leafy Fernleigh; the brilliantly minimalist work of John Stewart at his studio near Clunes and the 2012 winner of the $10,000 Townsville Ceramic Award, Catherine Lane, whose luminous pieces are bsed on a practice grounded in the Japanese ‘mingei’ tradition.

For enquiries call Suvira McDonald on 02 6684 9194 and for a list of Australian Ceramics Open Studios go to: www.australianceramics.com

Karen Jennings and Jenn Johnston at the Tooheys Mill Pottery.

The post Mud Trails, Music and more appeared first on .

Heading into the last day – grab some last minute Splendour fashion tips via River Island, from three top bloggers – Sam from Style Paws, Domenica from Vogue Vandal and Emily from She Does.

The post Princess? Boho or Grunge – choose your Splendour style… appeared first on .

When mother of two Salila O’Connor decided to organise a fundraiser to help the peopleof Tibet after the devastating earthquake in May this year, the last thing that occurred to her is that she would end up at Splendour in the Grass with her two young children writes Georgina Bible.

The Ewingsdale resident entered a raffle to win tickets to Splendour in the Grass at the event she helped organise – Mullum Loves Nepal – at the Mullumbimby Civic Memorial Hall. Salila hit the instant karma jackpot when she won Splendour in the Grass Gold Bar tickets in the raffle for herself and her two children, none of whom had attended the festival before.

Salila O’Connor with her twins, Mattia and Aidan.

“Splendour in the Grass is an amazing festival – to be able to come here with children and feel free to enjoy the event with my family has been fantastic” O’Connor says.  “The Little Splendour children’s festival is an absolute sensation. It’s been funny to see people without children actually trying to get in to the Little Splendour area because of the amazing array of events and activities. It’s quite amusing for parents – you can’t get in to Little Splendour unless you’re aged nought to fifteen!”

The Nepal earthquake was the worst to hit Nepal in 80 years and was strong enough to be felt across parts of India, Bangladesh, Tibet and Pakistan. The earthquake was also felt by the people of Byron Shire who raised more than $20,000 towards relief efforts at the event. “It was great to see the people of Byron Bay get behind the Nepal Fundraiser to make it such an extraordinary success,” says O’Connor.  “It’s also been amazing to see so many people who were at the Nepal Fundraiser here at the festival. Byron Bay has an amazing sense of community, which becomes so apparent when you attend events like this that bring everyone together.”

Boots with bling, and the eyes have it…

The post Even the ‘grown-ups’ want be to Little this year at Splendour appeared first on .

The new Splendour kids program – Little Splendour – opens up the festival for parents and children, writes Verandah Magazine’s Georgina Bible.

What happens when the Generation Xers who frequented Australia’s circuit of music festivals every year  grow up and start having babies? Do they retire their favourite band t-shirts and faded jeans to their local op-shop and relegate the festival experience to the remembrance of things past? Wrong. They stuff themselves back into their favourite jeans, pack the kids in the car and head off to Little Splendour – the specially designed camping and activity area for families at Splendour in the Grass.

Splendour in the Grass has developed an entire field of festival activities especially for children. Little Splendour is located in a fully fenced and secured area in the middle of Splendour in the Grass, designed exclusively for families to relax, play and explore their creativity.

“Many of the people who started coming to Splendour when it first began have families now, or are starting to have families, so this area is to encourage our Splendour families to return year after year and have a fantastic camping experience as well as a fantastic festival experience,” says Little Splendour manager Trudi Fitzgerald. “It’s also encouraging to those new Splendour comers with children that they can join in with other likeminded families and enjoy a music and cultural extravaganza.”

The Little Splendour program offers a line-up of arts and crafts activities to suit children of all ages. Highlights include a mini big top with a stage for musical performances, comedy acts, magicians and puppet shows. A clown school will offer clowning workshops, balloon twisting, juggling and face-painting while a circus school will give performances and circus workshops. There are two designated play zones, divided by age, with the Little Kidz Zone including an obstacle course, mega sized sandpit, jumping castle and a story telling tipi with character visits from fairies, pirates and princesses. The Big Kidz Zone will feature a climbing wall, ropes course, sports and games area, jumping castle and giant board games.

Little Splendour will also feature parents/babies tipis with areas for mothers to breastfeed and will include a fridge, microwave, change table and other conveniences for young families. Add a café and you might never want to leave. Moreover, the facilities of Little Spendour will also extend to a special new area for family camping. “The new camping area is in a little quiet pocket of the regular camping area sectioned of for those people with children,” says Fitzgerald. “There will be some facilities provided which will make camping for families more convenient.”

LITTLE SPLENDOUR

CIRCUS ARTS – Aerial acts include silks, trapeze, double trapeze net, Spanish web and ground acts include juggling, hula hoops and acro balance

THE MIM AND SAM SHOW – dynamic brother and sister circus act

YOGA with KarmaKids

AFRICAN DANCE – Afro Groove performance and workshop

JOHNNY THE JESTER – Magic Show

KIDDYWINKS – Puppet Show

SOUND SYNERGY – Drumming Workshop

THE GREATEST TREASURE – a musical theatre adventure

FIESTA JESTERS –Unicycling and juggling jesters

TRISTAN BANCKS – Children’s author and funmaster

Splendour in the Grass

Friday, 24th July – Sunday, 26th July 2015 – SOLD OUT

North Byron Parklands

126 Tweed Valley Way, Wooyung Tweed

Tickets: www.moshtix.com.au

The post We’re all big kids now appeared first on .

The festival opens on Friday July 17 with the uproarious Here is Harold  (Her er Harold), a Norwegian road movie about a man who sets out to kidnap the founder of Ikea. For over 40 years, Harold has been running a successful business, ‘Lunde Furniture’. But this comes to an end when IKEA decides to open a new superstore right next door to his small furniture shop. In mounting anger and desperation, Harold wants revenge. He arms himself with a pistol and sets off for Älmhult, Sweden, in order to kidnap his nemesis – the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad. But unfortunately, Kamprad is quite happy to be kidnapped!

Amanda Adolfsson’s haunting debut feature Young Sophie Bell

From Sweden, Young Sophie Bell (Unga Sophie Bell), screening on Saturday 18^th is Amanda Adolfsson’s debut feature, and the second film to come out of Stockholm Film Festival’s scholarship for female directors. In this drama inspired by The Virgin Suicides and My Summer of Love, two university friends move to Berlin after graduating, but their dreams are shattered when one suddenly and mysteriously disappears.

Based on a series of Finnish radio plays, The Grump(Mielensäpahoittaja) is a broad satire from director Dome Karukoski (Heart of a Lion) who returns to the comedy-of-bad behavior mode of his 2010 box office hit Lapland Odyssey. The film tells the story of a set in his ways 80-year-old farmer from rural Finland, who raises hell when he is forced to move in with his city-dwelling son. The Grump screens on Sunday 19^th.

Grimu Hakonarson’s Rams (Hrutar) won Un Certain Regard section at Cannes Film Festival.

The Festival also the Australian premiere of Grimur Hakonarson’s Rams (Hrutar) which was awarded the top prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section. Cannes Jury President Isabella Rossellini said Grimur Hakonarson’s film was being honored for “treating in a masterful, tragicomic way the undeniable bond that links all humans to animals.” Applauded for its wonderfully wry, understated comic moments, Rams centres on two brothers from a remote Icelandic farming valley who haven’t spoken in 40 years, but have to come together in order to save what’s dearest to them — their prize-winning flock of sheep.

Named by Variety as one of the ‘Top 10 Europeans to Watch’, Norwegian Writer/Actor/Director Ole Giæver brings us Out of Nature (Mot nature) a commentary on middle-class life and the Norwegian penchant for idealizing nature. With a wry Scandinavian sense of humor, Out of Nature is a sharp and compelling film about a put-upon salary man who seeks spiritual and sexual renewal in the great outdoors. Out of Nature screens on Sunday July 19.

Danish thrillers have certainly captured attention in recent years. In The Absent One (Fasandræberne) , the sequel to smash hit The Keeper Of Lost Causes, a troubling affair involving a double murder of twin siblings is reopened by the Copenhagen cold-case division after the children’s’ father commits suicide. The Nordic noir mystery switches between the past and the present as it uncovers what really happened in the 1990s at one of the country’s poshest boarding schools. The Absent One screens on Sunday July 19.

Verandah Magazine has three double-passes to a session to give away…just put a comment in the FB box below, or on our FB page.

For info on all the festival films and screening dates, go to ScandinavianFilmFestival or pick up a program at Palace Byron Bay Cinema.

The opening night film will be followed by a party with live music, drinks and Nordic treats.

The post Harold’s existential IKEA crisis leads to drastic action appeared first on .

What many of the punters who turn out in their droves for Lismore’s Lantern Parade don’t know  is that it is all down to one woman – the tireless artistic director, Jyllie Jackson.  “My original vision for the festival was for something that would light the streets with optimism and hope,” she says.  “If I look back at how small we were when we began it’s hard to believe that now we draw 30,000 visitors to Lismore for that one night.”

Jyllie Jackson: Founder and Artistic Director of the Lismore Lantern Parade.

It’s no mean feat to create an ongoing annual event, let alone one that’s run for 21 years.  “We’re actually getting people who came to the first ones as children, coming with their children,” says Jackson.  “It’s a wonderful feeling to have created something which is truly for the community, and which is so completely embraced by everybody.”  A highlight for this year will be the entertainment in the oval prior to the finale which includes a Viking battle.

Growth means changes, and with the changes came a permanent residence for the parade, with its parent body, LighnUp producing shows all-year round.  This year the parade promises to be more spectacular than ever with its theme ‘Love a Parade – Festivals of the World’.  It involves participants from throughout the Northern Rivers as well as visitors to the region who have attended workshops in lantern, mask and costume making, the finale show, carnival dance and ten parade bands.  “It’s a massive celebration of – well – everything that makes this region so eclectic and wonderful,” says Jackson. “It’s community, art and nature, arts and crafts, food, street theatre, music, dance, puppets, fine art…the list goes on and every year it’s different, but its essential element of connecting to community stays the same.”

This year the Lismore Lantern Parade is on Saturday June 20.  There are events on all day, with the main Lantern Parade beginning at 5.30pm on the corner of Market and Molesworth Streets. For more details go to the program: lanternparade.com/program There are family tickets in the grandstands and grass seating.

Photography by Natsky.

The post Don’t rain on their parade – they’re turning 21! appeared first on .

This Sunday, on April 12, from 9.30am, Northern Rivers residents can treat themselves to an Italian feast day – with food, music and entertainment for the whole family, at the New Italy Museum Complex near Woodburn.

Carnevale Italiano is a day to celebrate ‘All things Italian’ with the New Italy Museum Complex’s major fundraiser for the year.

Celebrated once a year to mark the Anniversary Day of the 50 families who settled in New Italy in 1881, Carnevale Italiano has grown into a showcase of the best that Australian/Italians have to offer.

The original Ialian settlers outside a homestead in New Italy.

Starting at 10.00 am with Mass, the day’s activities include a circus performance by Spaghetti Circus, entertainment by ‘The Golden Voice of Italy’ Tony Pantano, with the talented Fortunato Isgro and for the first time, we also have Simone Nicole – an accomplished opera and musical theatre performer.

With the St Augustine’s Men’s Choir from Coffs Harbour, renowned Australian whipcracker, Brian Fahey, and accordion player Val Willis, Carnevale Italiano the day is shaping up to be an entertaining feast for all.

There will be salami wheels, Italian wine and delicious Italian food.  You can take a pavilion tour, check your family history in the genealogy section, watch a traditional cooking demonstration or learn the history of New Italy and its wonderful descendants.

This year we will go back to the tradition of planting a tree in the Park of Peace which begun in 1936 by Giacomo Piccoli as part of ‘Anniversary Day’ by planting a tree to commemorate the 13 young men who went off to fight in WW1.

Every $7 entry goes into the draw to win two nights accommodation at Ballina in one of the Ramada Hotel and Suites, riverview rooms.

Come and enjoy a unique part of our Northern Rivers history in a fun family-friendly way and for more information please visit and like our New Italy facebook page.

Carnevale Italiano is proudly supported by Richmond Valley Council, Richmond Waste, Summerland Travel Lismore, Booyong Design, The Northern Star, Ramada Hotel Suites Ballina and Frank Vance Tyres.

Entry donation of $7 per person, children 14 and under free.

SUNDAY 12^TH APRIL from 9.30am onwards, at the New Italy Museum Complex, 10 minutes south of Woodburn on the Pacific Highway.

The post New Italy celebrates its old heritage appeared first on .