United in dance

For the first time in Australian history, indigenous people all around the country have come together at the same time to perform a sacred dance in solidarity.

Didgeridoos echoed through Albany’s Anzac Peace Park on Sunday morning as more than 100 people gathered to watch or take part in a Nations Dance on Menang Boodjar country.

Many communities across the State, as well as in other parts of the country including the Northern Territory and Queensland, took part in the dance ceremony.

“There is a great trauma happening to the lands in Australia with bushfires, rivers drying up, fracking, deforestation,” a spokesperson wrote on the Nations Dance Facebook page.

“All these are rippling into communities’ health and wellbeing on a human level, and with the despair of changes from Federally-appointed leaders we need to uplift ourselves within our communities from rural to coastal and big cities.”

Brianna Williams, who organised the Albany event, said she was touched by the turnout.

“The aim of this dance is to heal our country and our spirits and to unite, not just as a local community, but with others around the country,” she said.

“And the fact that we’ll all be dancing at the same time across Australia is pretty cool. May this be the beginning of healing of our land and our spirits.”