Landscapes of memory: Tjapukai Dance Theatre and Laura Festival

Abstract

It is in the very act of remembering and in our deeply intertwined spatial practices of memory that we conceptualise and thus create our cultural landscapes. One of the means by which we do this is through expressive cultural performances. Performers and audiences together create lived socio-political landscapes. Two examples are presented here: the history of the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Centre, which is intimately tied to the small township of Kuranda, also known as ‘the village in the rainforest’, and the history of the Laura Aboriginal Dance and Cultural Festival in Cape York.