“It was for us”: YIRRAMBOI spotlights First Nations voices, healing, and artistic control TBP: 20/06

YIRRAMBOI’s ‘needed’ return was defined by healing, and expressed through cultural revival and evolution, international partnerships, and emerging Indigenous artists. Brent Lynn reports.

Melbourne’s YIRRAMBOI Indigenous festival celebrated cultural revival, evolution, and healing over 10 days of events at Federation Square. Community leaders have welcomed the festival, praising artists and mob for reinventing lost cultural practices and bridging indigenous communities internationally in the wake of Welcome to Country services being heckled.

Elder and activist Diane Kerr opened YIRRAMBOI's 5th biennial festival on May 1st with a speech on the festival's purpose to heal and give power to Indigenous voices across Melbourne and the world.

"Today was a powerful event for all Indigenous peoples across Melbourne," she said. "We've shared traditional ceremony with our audience here, but it wasn't for them, it was for us."

Jack Charles’ historic story returned to YIRRAMBOI in 2025, ‘[A] legacy of resilience, wisdom, and generosity to inspire us.’ (Photo: Supplied)

Wirundjeri Elder Vicki Nicholson-Brown presented a possum-skin drum during the opening ceremony, the first such drum created in over 80 years, alongside performances by visiting Canadian Indigenous groups.

The Canadian collaboration follows increased governmental investment in YIRRAMBOI, which coincided with the royal commission into truth-telling. Sherene Stewart, YIRRAMBOI’s creative lead, said truth-telling, healing, and resistance are core to YIRRAMBOI.

“You can see [events] around healing, which is incredibly important for us to continue the fight. There's joy, there's a lot of programming with joy because that's an act of resistance for us,” said Stewart. 

Indigenous performers scored the ceremony with the reinvented possum-skin drums. (Photo: Supplied)

Beany John, a Canadian hoop dancer, commended how the festival was healing old wounds in Indigenous communities, and said that healing from colonisation transcends borders and peoples.

“Drums that haven’t been sounded in over 80 years are being sounded now," he said. “A lot of our storytelling [has] been covered up… it’s not about getting something out of it; it’s about healing together.” 

“It’s an exchange of cultures because of colonization."

Many Western countries have grappled with recognising Indigenous peoples in their constitutions and national history, with protests and action groups in North America and New Zealand fighting against erasure.

“We’ve had a disruptful week, and it’s still going, with racism,” said Kerr, referring to recent heckling at ANZAC Welcome to Country ceremonies across the nation.

Kerr said that the unity and positivity from festivals like YIRRAMBOI were needed in the community.

"It’s helped me heal, and I’m hoping it helps a lot of people,” she said. 

Stewart said YIRRAMBOI’s programme is communally dictated, and the variety reflects evolving Indigenous culture and identity within Victoria.  

“[Historically], a lot of works weren't curated by First Nations people. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were [seen as] just people from the Northern Territory. We have an incredible community of artists in Victoria. We really wanted to showcase [that],” Stewart said. 

YIRRAMBOI’s administration aims to remove the red tape of public events and advertising for First Nations artists, providing careers and platforms to artists representing the community. Artists from prior events have gone on to work with organisations within Melbourne and abroad. Stewart pointed to ‘Three Blak Ravers’, a queer youth performance group, as the sort of artists she feels benefit most from YIRRAMBOI. 

YIRRAMBOI 2025 marked The Three Blak Ravers' inaugural festival appearance. (Photo: Supplied)

Stewart said that First Nations people need to see reflections of their present alongside connections to their heritage if they’re to continue healing, “It's important that we express ourselves the way we want to, and tell our stories how we want to.”  

The Victorian government is currently negotiating a treaty with First Nations elders across the state, commencing in November last year. The First Peoples Assembly of Victoria, who brought the treaty proposal to government, hope to expand Indigenous input to government policy and Aboriginal Australian self-determination.