The culture and languages of First Nations people have taken pride of place at the National Folk Festival in Canberra on Saturday.
The five-day event is back in the nation's capital after a two-year break due to COVID interruptions, with a line-up of exclusively Australian acts.
The festival, which started in Melbourne in 1967 and then moved to Canberra 30 years ago, this year boasts 13 stages and over 200 acts.
Artistic director of the National Folk Festival Katie Noonan said she was excited for the festival to return after its two-year hiatus, as one of the first major music gatherings in Canberra since lockdowns lifted.
"We were secretly hoping of course that we would be back with all the wonderful colours and sounds of the festival, but there's been so much uncertainty in the last few years and we're one of the first big music festival gatherings in Canberra again," she said.
Ms Noonan said when organising this year's line-up COVID forced them not to include international acts, but says she saw it as an opportunity to celebrate Australian artists.
"Back when I was starting to program there was still a lot of uncertainty about international borders, and to be honest we weren't even sure if we'd be able to have people from WA join us. Thankfully the internal borders in Australia are all open now so everyone can come, but we decided to not do international," she said.
"One of the positives of COVID is that we realised how amazing Australian artists are, and I think it's helped us get over our cultural cringe of thinking that people from overseas are better. It's just not true."
Broadening the 'church of folk' through the celebration of Ngunnawal language
This year's theme of the folk festival is "find your home, find your family, find your folk", a message Ms Noonan says is about connecting to place, culture, and community.
She said her focus for the festival was on connecting to Ngunnawal country through the sharing of language on stage, a focus that has seen many of the artists performing songs in Ngunnawal language.
"I had a few priorities, but my main one was making sure that we connected to the Ngunnawal country that we're on," she said.
"We have worked with the Ngunnawal language elders committee to put My Island Home into language, and people have been putting that in their set all through the festival.
This year's festival was opened by iconic First Nations singer-songwriter Uncle Archie Roche, and will be closed by First Nations band Yothu Yindi.
Ms Noonan said the inclusion of multicultural acts were an important part of moving away from the traditional, rigid idea of what folk should look like to a more multicultural exploration of the genre.
"[We're] broadening the church of folk, taking it a little bit further away from more traditional Anglo-Celtic folk, which of course is extremely important, but it's no longer a complete definition of Australian folk," she said.
"This is a deeply loved festival, it's in a time of transition because some of the elders who were with us in the beginning are no longer with us, so we're sort of bringing the new generation of folkies and their children for the ride."
