As you sit before Pati Yerta dance ground with the night sky above, you will experience a tradition that is ages old as visitors to Kaurna Country you're presence is welcomed with a smoking ceremony performed by Paitya Dance Group, you will hear Kaurna language sung by the Kaurna Plains Choir who will bring to the festival the spirit of youth. Created specifically for this welcome Grayson Rotumah and Jamie Goldsmith on Yidaki perform an evocative musical fusion of past and present sounds. The Kaurna nation will then perform traditional cultural dances to formally welcome you the audience and performers to the Spirit Festival on Kaurna country.

As a gesture of appreciation and a custom that connects Indigenous culture's songlines and trading routes across the nation, a formal exchange of gift ceremony will be performed by the visiting dance groups from the Torres Strait Islands and Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara dancers and singers from central Australia. This half hour ceremony allows the dancers to perform on Kaurna land and secure the relations between the groups involved.

In all, the Spirit Dance Ceremony will showcase a wide variety of genres from contemporary to traditional dance. This three hour ceremony brings together a unique collaboration of dances from across the country. We have carefully selected a balance of performance not only on the merit of their performance but necessity of their involvement. Please sit back and allow yourself to be immersed in this very special event.

Gina Rings
Artistic Director

Paitya (But-Cha) -  which means brown snake, in the Kaurna (Gar-Na)language are a dance group that have been based in Kaurna country for over a decade. Led by senior Kaurna culture bearer Karl Winda Telfer, the group have been sharing story, culture, ritual and ceremony with many Aboriginal cultures throughout South Austr alia, Australia and the world. This collective of dancers are diverse and share many various language group relationships between them.

Taikurtinna is the Kaurna word for ‘family' and describes all dancers in this company. Director and cultural consultant Stephen Gadlabardi Goldsmith and son Jamie Ngungana Goldsmith lead Taikurtinna members of the Kaurna community in a ‘welcome to country' providing all guests and visitors with a unique opportunity and special insight into the living culture of the first nations peoples of the Adelaide Plains. Jamie has been working closely with Gina Rings to develop the Spirit Festival Dance Ceremony on the Saturday evening.

Taikurtinna have toured in America, Asia and Europe and have regularly performed at the Adelaide Festival of Arts, Adelaide Film Festival, Fringe Festival, Womad, Come Out and Festival of Pacific Arts.

Taikurtinna will lead the welcome to country on Friday 24th Saturday 25th from 7.30pm  as well as close the Festival on Sunday 26th 10pm.

The group consists of all young Aboriginal People the majority from South Australia, some are Narungga, Ngarrindjeri, Ngadjuri, Wirangu but they all have family ties back to the Kaurna People.

Kuma Kaaru in the Kaurna language means ‘One Blood‘ because these young men represent the diversity of Aboriginal People in Australia and no matter where you come from are all one mob ‘One Blood‘. Kuma Kaaru have performed at many different festivals and cultural events and Spirit Festival is pleased to have them performing over the weekend.

Kuma Kaaru perform Friday 24th from 7:30pm and as part of the Spirit Dance Ceremony Saturday 25th 7:30pm

Inma (traditional song and dance) is the foundation of Anangu culture. It embodies the stories, the designs and the rhythms of the Tjukurrpa (Ancestral Law).

The Spirit Festival is pleased to host the Tjanpi Desert Weavers collective as they perform a selection of Inma for Spirit Festival audiences including the Tjanpi Inma. The Tjanpi Inma was developed in recognition of the importance of the practice of fibre art within the cultural lives of desert women.

The Tjanpi Desert Weavers will perform Inma during the Spirit Dance Ceremony from 7.30pm