Let us take you to Perth, Western Australia as we take you along with unique experiences exploring indigenous culture, wildlife and the recently concluded EverNow festival — celebrating the stories of the Noongar people in full spectrum.
We enter the season of Kambarang. Summer blooms explode with swatches of orange and yellow. The season of transformation and birth comes with the radiance of the sun, beckoning hot and dry climate in the next coming months.
Bright sunny and breezy, the third windiest city in the world offers an entry into Australia’s rich indigenous culture and a big slice of nature. We are now in Western Australia which is synonymous with stretches of vineyards, numerous species of unique flora and fauna, as well as quokkas — it is the only place in the world where you can find these cute free-roaming marsupials.
During this visit, we dive deep into the cultural nuances of the indigenous people of Australia — the Noongar community. The visit peaks with the EverNow Festival, a magical and multi-sensorial experience that transcends time — expressed through sound, light, music, and elements of nature.
EverNow Festival: An enigmatic immersive Noongar celebration
Coming from a multicultural country like Malaysia, it is very easy to relate to the cultural expressions of the indigenous community in Australia. Differences aside, there is a sense of togetherness when different cultures intersect — there is a sense of curiosity and eagerness to learn about different heritage and history.
If you’re a history buff or someone who loves experiencing new cultures, the stories of the Noongar people will certainly appeal to you. And right here where the EverNow Festival is, members of the public have been given free access into the amazingly colourful world of the First Nations through music, dance and light.
The first EverNow Festival took place between 4 to 9 October 2023, comprising three main events namely Song Circle, Fire Gardens, and Boorna Waanginy: The Trees Speak.
Enter Song Circle
Song Circle is a newly imagined Noongar-led future scape led by Boomerang and Spear, the team behind Perth Festival 2022’s Noongar Wonderland. The performers stationed themselves on a rotating stage surrounded by sand piled up to two feet high. The stage moved slowly as the percussionists and singers sang the songs of the Noongar people in their own unique language. The dancers moved in unison to the tunes of nature and its surroundings, mimicking the inherent characteristics of sea creatures and birds.
Much like the cultural nuances of the tribes in Borneo, these songs were dedicated to the land, the river, the trees and the spirits. The dancers contorted their bodies and moved like flittering leaves and swimming mantas, rustling the peppermint branches significant to the Noongar culture.
“Baabaa… stingray,” the narrator exhaled. “Baabaa hides in the ocean floor. It disguises itself from larger predators like sharks and seals by flipping sands on the sea floor.” The dancers began to move to the storyline, as the sound of the deep ocean thundered down the arena.
The performance was moving, almost therapeutic. While most might not be able to understand what was sung, the tunes pierced deep into your emotional side — it calmed me down, much like what a sound bath would do.
Malaysians could easily relate through performances by traditionalist instrumentalists including our very own Alena Murang and the people of her tribe. The Dusun-Dayak people continue to preserve their folk songs that carry the same tunes and somewhat same genre. It left me wondering; could they be related in the past generations?
A 15-minute break saw the skies turn darker. The dancers now basking in blue and red spotlights, looking like underwater creatures. Through every narration, a tingling sensation grew stronger. As my eyes began to well up, the spectators felt the same. Young and old, of all colours and race, people came together to experience the daytales of EverNow through music.
On a personal note, the performance was absolutely relatable to Asian culture, somehow connected by a common thread — an ancestral divinity to say the least.
Bring the Heat to the Fire Gardens
We took a quick break at Keelap (campground), a meeting place for cultural exchange with land installations using elements of nature like native flowers, gum nuts and parts of the balga tree. The communal area was also surrounded by food trucks offering a variety of dishes.
As the temperature got colder, the piping hot Korean Fried Chicken provided the right amount of sustenance before we queued up to entire the highly anticipated Fire Gardens.
Presented by arrangement with Arts Project Australia, the Fire Gardens was truly one of a kind — a display of firelight, kinetic sculptures and live music created by French artistic collective Compagnie Carabosse. Painting with the palette of flames and embers, visitors were transported into a magical place nuanced with the colour, warmth, sound and scent of fire.
Over 6,000 handcrafted giant candles illuminated the Government House Gardens. Across the undulating gardens, visitors were invited to experience the many surprises as the flames danced in various formations — in firepots, lanterns and candles.
It was truly magical, to experience the primitive element of fire being creatively expressed in an immersive space where people from all walks of life could find a connection through the different installations. Some looked at it as art while some apprehended it as an intervention between nature and manmade — some just wanted a good photo.
Into the Enchanting Woods
The next day, we were brought to the iconic Kings Park and Botanic Garden — one of the must-visit places in Perth. Here, the Boorna Waanginy: The Trees Speak took place — a multi-sensorial display of sound and light amid the trees and landscape of the park.
It was as though the park was made for the theatrics of this installation. Once the sky darkened, the trees came to life with stories of the stolen generation. It is an innovative showing of tradition, reinterpreted with such novelty and creativity. Elements of Noongar art and its many symbolisms narrated the animation — amplified by the roars of birds and reptiles, and the thunderous sounds of Mother Nature.
The installation wasn’t just one that kept you still in one place but an immersive walkthrough all around Kings Park. After passing a row of trees and its dramatically colourful projections, visitors stumbled upon various light installations that essentially explained the story of life — the beginning and the end, the birth of something new.
These narratives truly showcased the boundless love for nature and the surroundings. Stories and songlines were sung and told to the next generations, passed down from one to the other orally — and through initiatives like these, the younger generation would be able to experience and understand the importance and significance of this immensely important and rich culture.
As the day ended, I especially felt emotional. The Straits-born Chinese in me (low-key) was hoping that something similar could be realised to bring forth a new wave of cultural experience for the new generation to see, touch and feel. What EverNow Festival did was truly phenomenal in the grander scale of bringing people from all corners of the cultural wheel together to experience something cool yet forgotten, something storied yet relevant to current context.
Will there be an EverNow Festival next year? I seriously hope so!
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Written by
Martin Teo
Editor-in-Chief
Martin has a soft spot for art and architecture, fashion and food history. When embracing his spirit-ual side, he finds himself switching between a Negroni and an Old Fashioned, especially after a long week. His day is never complete without time at the gym and three cups of coffee — flat white with oat milk, no less.