Australian Culture: Traditional Aboriginal Dance

Participants perform a traditional Aboriginal dance at Sydney’s Hyde Park on July 3, 2017. The week long annual event, with the theme of ‘our languages matter’, celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and takes place in Hyde Park including Traditional Aboriginal dancers perform. To celebrate NAIDOC Week, a gunya (dwelling) is being installed in Hyde Park in the lead up to NAIDOC in the City. The gunya will host yiddaki and dance performances over the weekend. This type of gunya is from Bundjalung Country on the north coast NSW. You may also hear it referred to as a ‘nguura’. Gunyas are small to medium sized Aboriginal dwellings made using natural materials such as strong pliable cane or tree saplings for the frame and paperbark from the melaleuca tree for the cladding.