‘Authenticity’ key to event BY MICHAEL SCALZO
M
usician Neil Murray lives in an off-grid cabin beside Lake Bolac, a large volcanic freshwater lake south of Ararat and the Grampians.
Murray is best known for his music in Warumpi Band and his song, ‘My Island Home’, re-recorded by Christine Anu and played at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Closing Ceremony. He grew up beside Lake Bolac and after two decades spent mostly in the Northern Territory, settled back in western Victoria. Since his return to Lake Bolac and Tjapwurrung country, Murray said he had been exploring his sense of belonging. “I decided to come back to investigate the idea,” he said. “In 1995 I got a little cottage on the edge of town in Lake Bolac and I still have a bit of a base for myself here.” Murray helped foster the contemporary concept for Lake Bolac Eel Festival, a small, bi-annual festival on the lake foreshore, that started in 2005. The festival builds on pre-colonial indigenous gatherings and ceremonies that took place for an annual autumn eel migration through Lake Bolac and Salt Creek. Murray said the festival achieved ‘real authenticity’ through a recognition of history. “This recognition grounds it and really builds on its history,” he said. “It was a gathering place for up to 1000 indigenous people when the lake overflowed and they set their traps down at the outlet. “Their celebrations sustained large gatherings of people, so the lake was begging to have something like that again. “For contemporary events to build on that history is important for mainstream Australia to accept and recognise. “The Lake Bolac Eel Festival is embedded in this history unlike other festivals. “Anything that has connection to
RECOGNITION: Neil Murray returned to western Victoria to explore his sense of belonging and connection to the region. history and that honours those pre-colonial traditions again – although is a teaspoon in terms of cultural loss – is still positive though.” Murray highlighted Bunya festival on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, which celebrates the annual harvest of edible cones from bunya trees, as another Australian festival trying to build contemporary celebrations upon indigenous traditions. “The prime movers of that festival have made their way to Lake Bolac before and spoken to everyone about what they were doing up in Queensland,” he said. “They have integrated indigenous culture into the mainstream there and it has been really embraced.” As a musician performing for four decades, Murray said there had been ‘tremendous’ inroads made in recognising and bringing indigenous art and culture to mainstream Australia. “The National Indigenous Televi-
sion, NITV, is a great example, so is modern indigenous music and film,” he said. “So many incredible things you would never have thought of in previous decades are shaping greater widespread acceptance, inclusion and respect for indigenous cultural heritage sites developing.”
New audience
Lake Bolac Eel Festival returns in March 2022 after a COVID-19 interruption and Murray hopes the event will continue to attract new people each time. “There is a core group of festival supporters, but new audiences are attracted every year,” he said. “I think 300 pre-sale tickets have been sold so far for this year. “The festival has hosted almost 1000 people before, it is a great gathering for the lake. “It is a shame COVID-19 threw a spanner in the works, but everyone has been affected by that.
Wimmera Roadways
“Given what everyone has gone through, this year there will be some hope and relief for people, something for everyone to enjoy.” Murray said the Wimmera, southern Mallee and Gariwerd regions offered ample opportunity for other celebrations and festivals to foster a similar recognition of history. “Horsham’s Alice Sky is making some brilliant music in the region,” he said. “Horseshoe Bend, on the Wimmera River in Dimboola, is somewhere that would be great for something like the eel festival. There is so much culture and heritage in that part of the Wimmera. “It always depends on generating some indigenous involvement and it is even better if they can drive it. “I hope there is an effort to include mainstream Australia and non-indigenous people as well in these celebrations. There is ample opportunity to do something like that on the river.”
Music and arts festival returns An Eastern Grampians music and arts festival will return in March after a twoyear COVID-19-induced hiatus. Lake Bolac Eel Festival, at Lake Bolac foreshore on March 25 and 26, will host songwriter Neil Murray, regional musicians and performers, workshops, markets and displays. Murray, from Victoria’s western district was a founding member of Warumpi Band, known for songs Blackfella Whitefella and Fitzroy Crossing. The bands song ‘My Island Home’ was awarded Australian Performing Rights Association’s 1995 song of the year. Music lovers will also experience performances from Benny Walker, Liam Gerner, Phil and Trudy Edgeley, Sarah Carroll and Shannon Bourne, Gypsy Smash, Jim Williams and Glynn Coulson. The festival will also feature an art auction, Tibetan dinner and Warrnambool professor John Sherwood as guest speaker during a festival forum. Sherwood is an honouree associate professor at the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at Deakin University. His indigenous archaeological research in Warrnambool, suggesting there might have been human activity in Australia 120,000 years ago, was published by Royal Society of Victoria in 2019. Festival chair Rachel Taylor said the ‘little festival with the big heart’, that recognised indigenous gatherings and ceremonies for an annual autumn eel migration in the area, was returning with the theme ‘Caring for Country and Culture’. “Following the partial destruction of the ancient eel stone formation last year in Lake Bolac, which is still subject to investigation, it’s important we focus as a community on caring for country and culture, which the festival celebrates and commemorates,” she said. Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation has registered the 176-metre eel stone formation at Lake Bolac as Kooyang Stone Arrangement. Research suggests inhabitants of the Lake Bolac area created the structure more than 1500 years ago. COVID-19 vaccination policies apply to all attendees and tickets purchased for the postponed 2020 festival will be accepted.
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