Sue Preston
IN the local language of the Anangu (the traditional owners of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and surrounding lands) the word palya can mean four things – hello, goodbye, thank you, welcome.
This simple greeting quickly broke the ice as visitors mingled with the Anangu people at the Tjungu Festival at Ayers Rock Resort in Yulara, Central Australia.
The green lawn of the resort’s town square, normally used mostly by tourists, was packed with people from the local aboriginal community. Just a few kilometres away, the community is not accessible to visitors and only those with a special permit may visit.
Tjungu means “meeting” or “coming together” in the Pitjantjatjara language, and for four days Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians had a unique opportunity to gather in a relaxed informal setting. The festival succeeds on two levels.
It offers people visiting the resort an unparalleled experience and understanding of local culture. It also gives Indigenous Australians, particularly the local community, a great sense of pride in their culture and achievements.
For the most part, the Tjungu Festival was a relaxed casual affair, although it did have a Tastes of Tjungu dinner under the stars, a bush tucker masterclass and other special ticketed events. However, its real appeal lay in its star performers like Drum Atweme, a collection of child drummers from Alice Springs who gave several energetic, joyful, rhythmic performances, and the amazingly acrobatic Mutitjulu Ninja Circus.
Every day during the festival people returned from their excursions to Uluru and Kata Juta National Park to sit cross-legged on the grass and listen to performances from some of the biggest names in Indigenous music and to participate in cultural dance workshops.
Others tried bush tucker foods for the first time, learned how to (or at least tried to) throw a boomerang, or watched an aboriginal artist at work.
Adults and children alike listened spellbound to stories about the first astronomers and how the aborigines used the night sky for mythology, orientation and to predict the upcoming seasons. Invoking an enormous sense of pride was a fashion parade showcasing leading Indigenous designers and using young local women as models.
One of Australia’s leading models, Samantha Harris, starred in the parade and mentored the first-time models as they shyly paraded in front of the big crowd.
One of the biggest crowds was reserved for the Saturday AFL football march where players from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytajatjara lands, mentored by Anangu man Dom Barry and AFL legend Russell Robertson, locked in a fierce battle for the Tjungu Cup.
Some footballers played in bare feet, others in socks, while others wore just one boot (on their kicking leg). With pop-up food stalls selling delicacies such as wattleseed waffles, celebrated chef Mark Olive (who jokingly describes himself as “the Black Olive”) drew a big crowd to his bush tucker masterclass.
Such is the interest in Indigenous foods that earlier this year the resort launched a Bush Tucker Trail with signature dishes incorporating bush ingredients available at every restaurant in the resort. Menu items now feature ingredients such as lemon myrtle,
Kakadu plum, bush tomato, quandong and wattleseed. Your braised pork belly slider may come with a Kakadu plum chilli sauce and macadamia nut salad, for example, while your outback pizza may appear dressed with smoked kangaroo and emu strips and bush tomato.
Adventurous eaters can enjoy grilled crocodile with bush dukkha and kangaroo mignon seasoned with mountain pepper and bush tomato jus. Even the cocktails have bush tucker ingredients, with offerings including a lemon myrtle martini and a native mint and desert lime mojito.
Resort guests had a chance to try some of these sensations at the Tastes of Tjungu where, on a remote desert dune-top, a delicious three-course meal inspired by Mark Olive was accompanied by entertainment and a talk on the stars.
Throughout the festival visitors could see aboriginal artists at work and buy their work. The Anangu artists largely make their paints from natural mineral substances mixed with water and sometimes with animal fat.
The most common colours in their paintings are red, yellow, orange, white, grey and black pigments. Supporting local artists is a priority for the resort, which recently established the Wintjiri Arts & Museum dedicated entirely to showcasing and supporting local Indigenous art.
The centre houses the resort’s successful artist-in-residence program where artists from the central desert region create art-in-situ, exhibit and sell their works, and guests are welcome to watch.
* Sue Preston was a guest of Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia.
IF YOU GO
The 2016 Tjungu Festival will be held from April 22-25. Accommodation at Ayers Rock Resort ranges from the premium Sails in the Desert Hotel to the award-winning Desert Gardens Hotel, self-contained Emu Walk Apartments, the authentic Outback Pioneer Hotel and Lodge and the Ayers Rock Campground.
There are free daily activities year-round, such as bush yarns, the finer points of spear and boomerang throwing, guided and self- guided garden walks, and cultural dance workshops.
At the Circle of Sands, elders will tell you their stories and teach you about their land and culture. Indigenous people make up about a third of employees. Most have passed through the ranks of the resort’s training and employment scheme that gives locals the opportunity to remain close to home and work in a way that brings pride to their culture and tradition.
The Tjungu Festival this year incorporated Anzac Day (as it will in 2016) and buses were provided to take guests to the local Dawn Service.
1300-134-044, www.ayersrockresort.com.au
