First Nations Program: Stories, Skins and Songs
The Berry Rural Youth Hall will host a local First Nations hub for OpenField 2025.
Starting with a Welcome To Country ceremony to kick off the festival at 10am on Friday 13 June, the hub will be a hive of ongoing drop-in activities as well as handmade arts, crafts, bush-healings and bush-tukka stall items to be purchased.
Weaving and yarning workshops on Whale Belonging and Dingo Belonging will be guided by Amethyst Downing, Jodi Edwards, Aunty Lila Stewart and Amanda Jane Reynolds.
Community and visitors will create a ‘Re-Place’ Story cloak on cowhide over the festival, which will be displayed and discussed at our Sunday afternoon First Nations Panel event Listening Country, Speaking Country.
Friday 13 June
Drop-in Activities 1-3pm
Dingo pups with Amethyst Downing
· Join the Dingo Belonging Workshop for a yarning and art-making experience that explores our connection to Country and the significance of dingoes as totem species in First Nations cultures. You’ll learn what a totem is and reflect on how we can support the survival and flourishing of these vital animals and the ecosystems they live in. Show your love for the dingo by making baby dingo pup to carry in the festival parade.
At The Hub
Saturday 14 June
Drop-in Activities 10am-1pm
Dingo pups with Amethyst Downing
Weaving with Aunty Lila Stewart
· Weaving and yarning together in friendship
Drop-in Activities 3-7pm
‘Re-Place’ Story cloak with Jodi Edwards
· yarning and collaborating on a cowhide story cloak
Sunday 15 June 2025
Drop-in Activities 10am-1pm
‘Re-Place’ Story cloak with Jodi Edwards
· yarning and collaborating on a cowhide story cloak
At the School Of Arts
Listening Country, Speaking Country
Sunday afternoon panel 3-4.30pm
Come and hear First Nations voices on culture, Country and heritage through language, story, poetry and heart.
The ‘Re-Place’ Story cloak on cowhide will be shown and shared.
Amanda Jane Reynolds is a Guringai and Yuin cloak-maker, multimedia artist, curator and storyteller who works with southeastern cultural traditions, knowledge, and histories. Amanda is OpenField’s 2025 First Nations program curator.
Lauren Carpenter/Chapman is a proud Gumea Dharawal, Wandawandian and Walbunja woman of the saltwater Yuin people. A descendant of the Carpenter family from Rosebery Park, Culunghutti and the Chapman family of the Wandawandian and Walbunja peoples, Lauren takes inspiration from her country, dreaming and Elders past and present.
Alfred Wellington is a Jerringa man born in Culburra is the CEO of Jerringa Local Aboriginal Land Council and has long involvement in advocating for protection of heritage sites and Country.
Dr Jodi Edwards is a Yuin woman with Dharawal kinship connection who has dedicated her life to Community, Culture, education and Language. Dr Jodi Edwards is the VC Senior Indigenous Research Fellow with the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) at the University of Wollongong.
Dr Lou Netana Glover
Māori wahine - Ngāti Whātua, Ngāpuhi, Tainui with belonging to Yuin peoples of so-called Australia will share her poem ‘Brave Moko’
Lou will share her poem ‘Brave Moko’
Sunday afternoon concert 5pm
Eric Avery, Kabi Marrawuy Mumbulla
First Nations resident artist, acclaimed violinist and musician Eric Avery Kabi Marrawuy Mumbulla, is a violinist, vocalist, dancer and composer from the Ngiyampaa, Yuin and Gumbangirr people of NSW.
He works with his family’s custodial songs and his haunting compositions often feature him singing while playing violin, predominantly in the Ngiyampaa language.
Eric will perform the finale concert to close out our festival program, with a performance inspired by the land of Berry and surrounding areas.