So yes I volunteered at the festival. It is a very interesting one full of a diversity of music and art. The artists ranged from various cultures: Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Indonesian, African, European....it was a great festival in terms of what was offered. The first day I signed up for a free Aboriginal Dance class...which was amazing except I did not read the fine print that said "master class" Ha Ha so yep I was tripping all over the place compared with the "professional" dancers that were next to me....very funny ...and humbling too but I learned some nice moves:)I even interviewed people on-camera for the site. I also saw Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. He is a great musician from Elcho Island (Aboriginal Lands) and had the best show...I had seen him also in NZ at WOMAD. My volunteering shifts introduced me to some fun folks but I have to say that as a volunteer I just expected a tad more...like volunteers should not be excited for getting ONE discounted ticket to ONE event (some volunteers were actually fine with this...not me!)...Hello Darwin Festival Volunteering Organizers...volunteers should get FREE tickets to any event!!! We work our asses off and with a smile :) But you all know me, I just walked into a venue and it became free cause I ain't paying for standing in an open air space, hello people why am I volunteering...sure cause it feels all good to help out but come on ya'all I want some free tickets...is that so crazy?.....our supervisors would constantly say "the event is sold out" sure it is, sold out on a field under some stars...PLEAZE!it aint a fire hazard on a field to have some more people out there. so yep I created a bit of an uproar over certain things especially the night the amazing Black Arm Band played....I basically had the staff quickly redo how they were admitting people into the show because their technique was ...well, it just breathed of classest inequalities so I made some suggestions...which thankfully the venue coordinator agreed with. They were trying to make people with standing room tickets wait for an HOUR outside the gates while the people with seated area tickets go in and get all cozy in their seats....can you believe they were doing this because they thought the standers would steal the seats...ha ha....anyway I suggested that everyone be let in the main gate but just have an extra volunteer standing near the seated area double checking the tickets for the seated area. Then I went on a political diatribe about privilege oppression, the history of indigenous people being pushed out and the fact that most people who could afford seats would likely be white while the standers would likely be people of color...and the possible psychological impact of having "standers" wait an hour. Yes I went off...and mainly cause the festival staff really needs to chill out and also really think about the people that are attending and the people that are working there...yes there were some really cool folks that I worked with but well...I just had to vent...and I think I lost it extra that night because I had also been volunteering with the Larrikia Nation and seeing up close the impacts, on many people but in particular Aboriginal people, of all the freaking "development" and construction going on in Darwin... One was a metaphor for the other in some ways...to me at least......But yes I learned a bunch and had a very fulfilling experience, I will write more later about the Larrikia Nation and the Retta Dixon Home Reunion .
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