‘Now we need you’: Cape York Indigenous dance festival reverberates with rich stories and a message of unity

The Laura Quinkan Dance festival in far north Queensland has been running since the early 1980s. Photograph: Wayne Quillam/Guardian Australia

Mala, an Indigenous songman is speaking the music of deep bassy didgeridoo. As his vocal lines of grunts and rhythmic shrieks, backed by cadenced clapsticks, reach a crescendo, he invites the crowd to join him and the Yarrabah Barna dancers in the red dust circle.

“It is only because of our old people that we have survived, but now we need you,” Mala says. “We need you to stand with us and give us our voice.”