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Detail of Jeanette Dyson' s Kimberley Gold

Shinju Matsuri-The Festival of the Pearl is certainly an intriguing name for an annual Australian festival, but that is Broome-a melting-pot of Aboriginals, Malays, Chinese, Japanese, Koepangers, South Sea Islanders, Filipinos and Europeans .

Each August, at the time of the pearl harvest, Broome in the tropical northwest of Australia sets out to showcase the town with a community-oriented festival that combines rich cultural traditions with more robust activities. Over a ten-day period, this multicultural town provides a veritable feast of events.

High on the artistic list is the Pearl Jewellery Design Competition. Other events include art exhibitions, a performance art banquet, sand-art and fire installation, opera under the stars, a float parade preceded by dancing Chinese dragon and a feast of taste sensations commencing with the exotic Pearlmeat Cookoff and continuing through a number of markets and a street party where the various cuisines may be sampled.

The heritage of the Japanese, who have left an indelible imprint on the town, had been ignored for many years until in 1970 the first Shinju Matsuri was held. Twenty-five years later the festival has an enviable reputation with thousands of visitors expected for this and the O'Bon Matsuri or Festival of the Dead which now precedes Shinju Matsuri. The former is a serene and beautiful Buddhist festival when the spirits of the dead come home to visit and be entertained by their families . Early in the century it was celebrated by the pearl divers and the geisha

Jeanette Dyson' s Kimberley Gold, winner of the Shiniu Matsuri Art Award

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O'Bon ceremony in the Japanese graveyard (photo Maria Mann)

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Sending the miniature boats out on the tide at the end of O'Bon (photo Maria Mann)

Local school children preparing for the O'Bon ceremony at the Japanese graveyard (photo Maria Mann)

Angela Bakker, Matso' s Store, linocut (Durack Gallery)

of Sheba Lane. Last year this Japanese heritage was invoked with the lovely ceremony being reintroduced. Held at the Japanese Cemetery and lit only by candles, rites included Haka Mairi-the cleaning of the graves, Mukaebi-lighting candles, fires and lanterns to welcome the spirits, and the Bon Odori danced by local schoolchildren in kimonos. Two days later, the spirits were farewelled with candlelit miniature boats sent off on the tide into Roebuck Bay.

The official opening of the 1993 Shinju Matsuri took place in one of Broome' s architectural treasures-the Kimberley Kreations Gallery-which is housed in historic Matso' s Store, relocated and restored in 1985 by Broome' s guardian angel Lord McAlpine. The current owner, Dawn Wright, opened it as a gallery in 1991, expanding her Chinatown shop which she had opened earlier as an outlet for the many talented artists of the area. It was the occasion to announce the winners of the Art and Craft Awards judged by Perth artist Leon Pericles.

Pericles awarded the Open Acquisitive prize to Kunnunurra resident Jeanette Dyson for her Kimberley Gold, a fine blue, purple and gold landscape from which an inquisitive emu accosts the viewer. The watercolour/gouache award went to Broome-born Rosanna Charlie of Port Hedland for My Dreams, an elegant piece in the aboriginal manner recreating a childhood dream. The Aboriginal award went to Francine Riches for Stingray in Shallows and the encouragement award to Valerie Brand for a photo-realist image of a local scene. All four works were fresh and vibrant.

Rosanna (Rosie), whose tribal family are Yawuru, has an excellent colour and spatial sense which together with her personal iconography brings a special quality to the work. Gulgoodudda illustrates the ceremony of giving a baby its 'bush' name. The curved forms traditionally represent the buttock marks in the sand. Rosie, who usually works on paper using gouache or watercolour, has won several art awards.

Valerie Brand's paintings vary from photo-realist scenes to schematic 'aboriginal' pictures. In the latter, she has forsaken traditional styles to develop a distinctive

Angela Bakker, The Courthouse Broome, woodcut (Durack Gallery)

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Top: Sandy Robertson, Staircase Markets, pastels, (Durack Gallery)

Top right: Mutsuko Bonnardeaux, Kumi-e, papercraft

Bottom: Helen Norton's Parrots on display in Kimberley Kreations Gallery

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contemporary aboriginal sensibility . She is, however, better known as one of the most talented carvers in the Kimberley-a skill she was taught by an uncle. Her exquisite boob nuts are collectors' items.

In the Year of Indigenous People, the Guest Artist with his own solo exhibition was Aboriginal painter Philip Narkle. Narkle, a Nunygar from the south, now resident in Derby where he manages an aboriginal youth hostel, used a mixture of traditional and contemporary techniques to bring to life stories his grandfather told him. Winner of the Pilbara Art Award in 1991 and the Kimberley Art Award in 1993, Narkle, who has had sellout exhibitions in Perth, describes his work as contemporary interpretations of old stories. Most tell of the creation stories of the kangaroo (yonga), goanna (karda) and water serpent (waarkel). They certainly have a distinct individuality.

Leon Pericles added his zany sense of humour to the occasion with an exhibition of etchings at Cable Beach Club . His works from his imaginary town of Widjimorphup struck a chord with many. Pericles' lively work was featured in issue 8 of Oz Arts. As a judge of the Jewellery Awards, my own work was featured in a solo exhibition at the Pearl Fishers Jewellery Gallery . Works from the 1983 Pilbara Collection through to the new Kimberley Collection were on show.

The prestigious Shinju Matsuri Pearl Jewellery Design Awards became part of the festival in 1984 . Open to international designers, but as yet rarely patronised by them, the competition nonetheless attracts talented designers. It is divided into four categories: Contemporary, Artist-craftsman, Argyle Diamonds and Pearls, and Student. These winners are eligible for the Shinju Award (the piece which best captures the uniqueness and beauty of the Australian South Seas pearl). In 1992 and 1993 the award went to Peter Meier of Bentine Gems in Sydney, winner of the Argyle Diamonds and Pearls category. The 1993 necklace, while crisp and elegant, had undertones of tribal jewellery. The Artist-craftsman category was won by Glenice Lesley Matthews of Perth for a delicately enamelled fan brooch set with a baroque pearl. The Contemporary section went to Denzil Price of Perth for a magnificent pearl set in waves of gold and the Student award to Kieron Sandrin of Brisbane for an Art Deco-styled brooch featuring mabe pearls. Highlights toured to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

Other galleries, such as the Durack Gallery, also housed in an historic building restored by Lord McAlpine, and Shekki Shed Gallery in Chinatown, staged exhibitions of Kimberley or Broome artists. Durack Gallery opened in 1992 by Perpetua Hobcroft, daughter of artist Elizabeth Durack, and shows both contemporary work from all around the state and historic prints of the area. Her Shinju exhibition Contemporary Kimberley Artists included linocuts of various old Broome buildings by Angela Bakker, Broome drawings from Elizabeth Durack, works from Balgo artists Ronnie Tourbrook and Lucille Gill and bark painting from

Lily Kordada of Kalumburu. For O'Bon Kumi-e papercraft from Mutsuko Bonnardeaux of Kunnunurra was featured.

Food is central to many of the events held during Shinju Matsuri. The Pearl Meat Cook-off attracted sixteen chefs who amazed guests with the subtle taste and visual presentation of their endeavours. The winning entry, Almond Pearl Salad, from the Mangrove Hotel's Richard Perry, was closely followed by Pearl Meat Variations from Cable Beach Club's Brad Ford and Pearl Meat Coconut from their Paul Guilfoyle. Judges Stewart Van Raalte and Jan Oldham had a difficult time selecting the dish which best conveyed the ambience of Broome. It was less difficult for the guests invited to consume the offerings . The winners were of the new breed of chefs consciously developing an Australian cuisine with a style of its own.

A greater number of people were able to enjoy the Performance Art Banquet served in a marquee at Cable Beach to the accompaniment of guitars, a cappella singing, experimental dance and other artistic performances . The art, orchestrated by Warwick Nieass, accompanied food prepared by Linda Walters . This included appetisers which arrived from the beach by canoe, towers of skewered crustacea and whole blackened fish which sailed in on pearling luggers born by lithe-limbed 'slaves' turbanned and clad in sarongs.

The Taste of Broome street party allowed the lodcals to show off their multicultural culinary skills. Inviting smells wafted by on the evening breezes. Satays, curries, stir-fried and bush tucker jostled with prawn kebabs and mango cheesecakes. Some of these stalls were seen at other events, such as the Staircase Markets, when people gathered at the Town Beach to watch the natural phenomenon of The Staircase of the Moon when, at very low tide, the reflections on the mudflats of Roebuck Bay create a stairway to the moon.

Shinju fairs are held each Saturday afternoon when stallholders from all over the top end sell their wares. One regular is the artist Irene Yallaroo who paints stories such as that of When it rains fish-not a fairy tale but an occasional cyclonic occurrence vividly depicted on her canvases. Yallaroo also staged an exhibition of works from herself and family at the Shire Hall during Shinju Matsuri.

Music has always been part of the cosmopolitan pearling port. It was not neglected with family style beach concerts each Sunday afternoon showcasing the talents of local children and bands; Northern Command Band in tropical whites; · James Blundell at the Cable Beach Amphitheatre and Jane Rutter with her Tutti Flutti cabaret repertoire at the Cable Beach Club.

A week later, the inaugural Opera under the Stars was held on the palm-fringed lawns of the Mangrove Hotel. Here, on a stage enhanced by guttering candles,

Top left: Rosanna Charlie, Gulgoodudda, Bush Ceremony,

gouache

Top right: Valerie Brand's Fish painting

Bottom: Phillip Narkle, Yonga Dreaming

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Peter Meier's Necklace, Shinju Matsuri Award 1993

excerpts from opera were superbly rendered by Hamish Anderson, who had flown in from Japan, and Mary-Attracta Connolly of the WA Opera Company. The two sparkled together. Two songs from the locally written hit Bran Nue Dae were included. One had been a gift to the baritone from the writer Jimmy Chi who is currently preparing a musical to feature the two singers.

The more 'popular' arts included awards for best-dressed shop, Broome Botanica awards for gardens, the Australian Premiere of Jurassic Park, beach concerts, a rodeo, an Air Show provided by the Air Force, dragon boat races, beach carnival and the float parade. As usual, this was led by Sammy the Chinese Dragon, the Shinju mascot, who danced at the head of the parade. Other floats featured recycling, the theme for the year, or local identities such as Cass and his camels. Broome' s senior citizens wittily presented themselves as recycled teenagers.

The final day culminated in Between Tides IV, a sand-art candle installation and fire-dance performance followed by a brilliant fireworks display. Visiting artists Dora and John Dallwitz created 'a Homage to the Sand Bubbler Crabs who inhabit the intertidal area ... burrowing beneath the sand and creating the fascinating and beautiful mini-sand sculptures at each low tide'. To replicate the tracery of these, volunteers were co-opted to create large sand balls and striated pathways. As sunset filled the skys, candle-lit sandbags outlined the large work and crab dancers scuttled erratically up the pathways created. Later, when it was dark, torch-bearing dancers emerged from the sea to be followed by the colourful flares of the fireworks.

Broome is also the home of Magabala Books, the Aboriginal publishing corporation founded with Bicentennial funding which produces the delightfully illustrated books such as T;arany-Roughtail: The Dreaming of the Roughtail Lizard and other stories told by the Kukatja with illustrations by Lucille Gill which won the Eve Pownall Award: Children's Book Council of Australia, 1993. In 1993 they also brought out Yorro Yorro: Everything Standing up Alive, a collaboration by Aboriginal elder David Mowaljarlai with Sydney photographer Jutta Malnic to tell the story of the Wandjina creation spirits of the Kimberley. As Mowaljarlai says: 'Everything has two witnesses, one on earth and one in the sky. This tells where you came from and where you belong.' Six years in the making, it successfully evokes the spirit of the Kimberleys.

1994 is the twenty-fifth Kimberley festival and the townspeople are set to make this bigger and better than before to pay tribute to Broome' s legendary and colourful pearling history. It should be a time to remember.

Text and photographs by Dorothy Erickson

Above: Dorothy Erickson, Glittering Flight of Cockatoos, 1 8ct gold,

Argyle diamonds

Below: Dorothy Erickson, Flight of 28's, silver, l 8ct gold, chrosophase

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Sand Art, Cable Beach by Dora and David Dallwitz and volunteers

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