Saturday,10/9/22

We spent the morning mucking about, tidying up and doing nothing much until it was time to attend the first of the Desert Song Festival events.

For this, we drove out of town to a property where the sound systems had been set up in the open air at the foot of a mountain range, with tarps on the ground and chairs arranged for seating.

What a night!

First we heard a violinist, Netanela Mizrahi, who played his acoustic violin with a sound loop providing his own accompaniment. He is of Brazilian ancestry, so the music was reminiscent of their rhythms and music. Wonderful stuff, and the sound system was very professional, giving us perfect sound even though we were outdoors. There was a classical guitarist, an African xylophone player, a choir of African children, a guy who played an instrument made from a gourd (don't know its name). But by far the highlight for us was the Arafura ensemble from the Darwin Symphony Orchestra, who were wonderful themselves, but an aboriginal man - Guwanbal Gurruwiwi - sang with them songs in his language which he had composed, and oooooh, what a voice!!! I just closed my eyes and let that beautiful, true voice wash over me. It brought tears to my eyes. I bought their DVD, so I'll play it for anyone who would like to hear it. Just perfection.

We left when the African guys started just playing monotonous rhythmic scat.

Sunday, 11/9/22

We had booked for the second Desert Song Festival event we had chosen, but had the morning free, so drove out to see pretty Emily Gap.

 

Then a little way further to Jessie's Gap.

 Once again, we were astounded by the forces which lifted these rocks to such an angle.

And on to Corroboree Rock, where men's rites were conducted.

Then it was back to the town, where we began our walk to five different venues to hear five different performances. 

First was in the heritage Stuart Town Jail for a solo performance by the violinist from last night. Next we walked to the Old Law Courts for the gourd player. Then off to the Flynn Memorial Uniting Church for a wonderful recital by the Arafura ensemble. Beautiful  music. After that, we walked to the old Hartley Street Schoolroom to hear a local choir sing a variety of songs - first a group of women, then a men's group, who did an amusing rendition of On Ilkley Moor Baht Aht, and finally the whole group sang Shenandoah. The last place was The Residence, but we didn't stay long, as the scat players were boring us once again with their repetitive and not very interesting stuff.

Although we heard some lovely music, we had expected to hear more local people, especially local aboriginal performers, and except for the one amazing voice, there were none. However, we only had time to attend two events, and we would have heard aboriginal choirs later in the week if we had been able to stay longer.

So that's almost it for the Alice. One more day to shop and pack up, and a visit to the Desert Park at night to see the night animals in their habitat, and then we'll be heading off towards Queensland and home.

It's been great to have the time to drive around and see what Alice Springs is all about, sandwiched as it is between the impressive long Macdonnell  Ranges, which dominate the town and its surrounds,  providing many beautiful places to see.

It is certainly an aboriginal town and their history and symbols are celebrated everywhere you look. Various groups roam the streets all day. Caught between two worlds and not willing to give up the benefits of either.

UPDATE

Our night-time visit to the Desert Park was excellent.

Our very knowledgeable ranger knew so much about the animals and their habits, and used her red light torch to point them out when she saw them. We encountered stick 🐀  rats, Mala (very small wallabies), echidna and BILBIES!!! We'd never seen one before.

Well worth the visit. Not only did we see these endangered animals in their protected habitat, but we learned a lot about their survival, predators, food sources and what is needed for their future survival.

Well worth the visit.