Dancing the mighty Murray back to health (article for The Koori Mail - Issue 700 - 08 May 2019)

Tradition and ceremony returned to Mungabareena near Albury recently with the arrival of the Ringbalin – Dancing The River tour.

The tour is an initiative of Elder Uncle Major ‘Moogy’ Sumner and the Tal-Kin-Jeri dancers from Ngarrindjeri country. It was organised to celebrate the United Nations Year of Indigenous Languages, as well as for singing up the great Murray River to heal it from the well-publicised problems the Murray-Darling system faces.

“The reason that we’re here is to dance and ask the ancestors to bring the water all the way down to our country at the Murray mouth,” Uncle Moogy told the crowd gathered on the banks of the river at Mungabareena, which is a sacred meeting place for the local Wiradjuri people, located east of present-day Albury.

“The Coorong is supposed to be a mixture of river water and ocean water coming through the Murray mouth. The Coorong looks like the ocean now. There’s jellyfish on the shores. Later there’ll be sharks there.”

At sundown, local Wiradjuri Elder Aunty Edna Stewart gave Uncle Moogy and the dancers a warm welcome to Bungambrawatha (Albury), which she explained meant ‘homeland’ to the local people.

“It’s nice to see ceremony here in our sacred place by the river and to see the local community involved,” she said.

The mob gathered there enjoyed performances of a number of special dances, including those about Emu story, Kangaroo, Tiger Hawk, Whale, Swan Egg gathering and picking berries.

Uncle Moogy took special care to get the attention of the children in attendance by explaining the dances and why they are important.

“The river law joins all us river people together,” he said. “If we all ask the river ancestors country. together, we can heal this river. It is important to hand down our stories to the children, then they can hand them down to their children and grandchildren not born yet. That only happens through ceremony, like the one here tonight.”

The performances also included a local Wiradjuri dance troupe from nearby James Fallon High School. Even though the students had previously performed at a number of big cultural events, such as the National Multicultural festival in Canberra, they had never performed in a traditional sunset ceremony before.

The visiting dancers exchanged techniques with the local troupe, with both groups gaining appreciation of each other’s culture. Afterwards, the local dancers called the event special and said they loved performing with their new friends.

Aside from the Ringbalin dancing tour, Uncle Moogy is standing as a South Australian candidate for the Senate in the upcoming federal election for the Australian Greens Party.

He is a board member of both the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority board and Black Dance Australia.

After Mungabareena, the Ringbalin – Dancing the River tour continued to make its way down the Murray stopping at Wood Wood, Mildura and Wellington before finishing at Goolwa on the Easter weekend.

Details of the tour can be found at www.tal-kin-jeri.org/ringbalin-2019.

Uncle Moogy’s Senate campaign website is https://greens.org.au/sa/person/major-moogy-sumner