Thursday, March 19, 2009

Walmadany needs a voice


FRIDAY MARCH 27th 2009
MALE OVAL, CHINATOWN, BROOME
NO ALCOHOL

featuring
PIGRAM BROTHERS
JOHN BUTLER
SCRAP METAL
KUCKLES
SHANE HOWARD
ERNIE DINGO
ROB HIRST (midnight oil)
PATRICK DAVIES
WIL THOMAS & THE HOPEFUL 3
NAOMI PIGRAM
ANGUS GRANT (scotland)
TONCHI MCINTOSH
KIMBERLEY RIDERS

FREE ENTRY from 4pm
Donations gratefully accepted at entrance/exit gate to help cover costs of concert

Law Keeper and Custodian for the Goolarabooloo heritage, Joseph Roe, has asked the Pigram Brothers and friends to create this cultural celebration - Walmadany Concert for Heritage

The WA State Government have said they will build a gas processing precinct at Walmadany (James Price Point) 60 km north of Broome on the Kimberley coast and are even prepared to compulsorily acquire this land.
Apart from the obvious environmental and social impact of such proposed industrialization, this event hopes to draw attention to the significant social and cultural values at stake in Broome should this development proceed.

Excerpt from the invitation to artists :

The law and song cycles of Walmadany (James Price Point) are not ancient dreamtime history. This law has been kept alive through my grandfather Paddy Roe and now through me. If the threatened development goes ahead our Country is gone for good. Our Country holds our heritage including burial sites, and most importantly the Song Cycle that runs through this country from the north of the Dampier Peninsula from Burringbarr (Swan Point) to Wabbina (Bidyadanga) Your voice can help draw attention to this great plight and help protect our ancient and sacred song cycles Bugarigaara (Dreamtime)........JOSEPH ROE, LAW KEEPER & CUSTODIAN GOOLARABOOLOO
Organiser, Alan Pigram said the event was not a protest concert, but rather a celebration of Price's Point and its cultural significance.
"My concern is for that country, not anything else really, it's not opposition to gas or other development, but THAT COUNTRY NEEDS A VOICE,'' he said.
Alan Pigram said Prices Point had played a big role in his life and that of his family.
One of the proudest things for me when these artists come to town is to take them up that coastline, it's part of our lifestyle to do that, the pride in being able to to that, to show them that area and to tell them all the stories," he said