Homeland Festival of Sacred Song and Dance
30th, 31st December 2005 and 1st January 2006

Greetings to all our friends from former festivals. Welcome to you and all our new friends to be.
From the beautiful Bellinger River spa pool & rapids, across the Homeland Festival ground, through the sacred Bamboo Grove and over to The Sanctuary and the Hot Rock swimming area.

This Homeland Festival of Sacred Song and Dance will be the 11th Homeland Celebration and Gathering of the Tribe of New Dreamers. The first Easter Peace & Healing Festival was in 1986 and the last one, the Sun, Earth, Moon Gathering was held in 2000. It is our wish that this celebration will allow us all to enjoy our beautiful valley & riverfront while also offering many opportunities to learn about the traditional Koori stories of the land, environmental rehabilitation initiatives, healing methods and especially the uplifting inspiration of chanting, kirtan, dance and other group consciousness raising enterprises.

So we invite you to join us for 3 days and nights of sharing and creative activities ... live entertainment, small chanting groups, drummers’ camp, theatre, music incl. open-mike sessions, dance, poetry, ritual, fresh-cooked food market, healing village workshops in a wide range of techniques, earth-care village, story-telling, sweat lodges, mud baths, gravel rubs, ochre painting, swimming, bamboo grove meditations and rainforest walks. A wonderful and relaxing escape - away from the usual everyday stresses.

We would like to extend a special invitation to all our Koori brothers and sisters to come and share with us in peace the knowledge and the spirit of this land that we may engender mutual respect and feelings of harmony and cooperation, to dream a bright new day together.

THE CELEBRATION SITE is an exquisite field of light beneath the Dorrigo Escarpment on the Bellinger River with national park to the north and state forest south, waterfalls, rainforest, clean air, no hustle and bustle. Homeland is an environmental and wildlife sanctuary and we ask that you help us to keep it clean and beautiful and the feeling loving and harmonious.

PLEASE BRING your musical instruments, sun protection, tents, camping gear, canoes, torch, eating and drinking utensils (food market has no disposables) and skills/knowledge to share.

PLEASE DO NOT BRING dogs or cats (they will be impounded), alcohol, drugs, glass bottles and containers, disposables (of any type).

FACILITIES Cold showers, drinking water, hot water for dishwashing, pit and dry composting toilets, food stalls and craft market, entertainment, river swimming and forest walks. Do not use soaps and detergents of any kind in the river; it is the drinking water supply for the Valley residents. Please observe all signs posted on and around the Festival site.

CARS We wish to limit car access to the Festival site. If at all possible, please let go of your cars for a few days. We know you need them to get here but leave them in the off-site car park. The camp site is so much nicer, safer and healthier without cars, so carry your gear in or ask us for tractor/trailer assistance. Due to this being a constant problem at previous Festivals and the resultant environmental damage, we have imposed a $10 car entry levy on participants who enter in a vehicle (levy refunded if vehicle is unloaded and removed straight away).

COST $100 for the whole Festival (3 days/2 nights) or $40 for a day ticket under 16 free; 16 to 18 half price.

If you wish to contribute to the Homeland Festival of Sacred Song and Dance by performing, selling from a stall, providing a service or conducting a workshop, helping with site preparation and set up please contact the Festival organisers A.S.A.P.
Give us a ring anytime on +61 02 6655 8571,

email homeland@bellingen.com or zhanny@midcoast.com.au or write to:

769 Darkwood Rd means 7.69 kilometres from the intersection of Darkwood Rd with Waterfall Way at Thora General Store. Waterfall Way runs from the Pacific Highway at Raleigh (near Urunga, about 20 minutes south of Coffs Harbour) through Bellingen towards Dorrigo and Armidale. Thora Store is about halfway between Bellingen & Dorrigo. Homeland is about 40 minutes drive from the highway.

Poetry & Drama, Drummers' Camp,

EarthCare Village,

Fresh-cooked Food Market,

Workshops,

Demos,

Storytelling,

Open-Mike sessions

No dogs, cats, glass, alcohol or disposables