MAALI Festival Announces Rescheduled Date Due to COVID-19 Lockdown

The inaugural Maali Festival, which was scheduled for the 9th and 10th of July, has been rescheduled due to the COVID-19 lockdown. The Maali Festival has now been rescheduled over one full action-packed day - Saturday the 24th of July.

Curators Ian Michael (Wilman Nyoongar) and Chloe Ogilvie (Yamatji Nhanda) have been working tirelessly with the artists to bring you this incredible festival reclaiming the State Theatre Centre encompassing theatre, music, dance, High Tea with Elders, play readings, films, a panel discussion, market stalls, art and other family friendly activities.

Maali Festival opens at 10am with a Welcome to Country in the State Theatre Centre Courtyard, honouring ancestors, cleansing and reclaiming space.

One of the highlights of the festival is a High Tea with Elders, which will offer a limited number of people a direct audience with the City of Perth Elders Advisory Group, as they share their personal stories and vast cultural knowledge. Limited registrations on the day.

Maali Festival's theatre program includes the matinee (2pm) and evening performance (7.30pm) of York, by Ian Michael and Chris Isaacs, a West Australian ghost story inspired by 200 years of real accounts.

The festival will see the return of the ground-breaking and longest running Western Australian play Bindjareb Pinjarra, which mixes drama with outrageous comedy and explores the black and white versions of the Pinjarra Massacre of 1834.

From the voice of award-winning playwright Meyne Wyatt (Wongutha-Yamatji) Maali will showcase a play reading of City of Gold along with Brothers Wreck by Jada Alberts, a confronting and honest exploration of grief and loss.

The State Theatre Courtyard is the heart of music and dance for the duration of the Maali Festival, headlined by electronic duo Electric Fields, R&B Pop duo The Merindas, featuring local acts singer/songwriter Phil Walleystack, beat creator Boox Kid, hip hop artist Flewnt and DJ Pindan Princess. Join us for an explosion of dance with Nyumbi (4.30- 6pm) and dance groups Middar, Wadumbah, Koolangkas Kreate, Kwarbah, Djookian among others.

The music acts will be broadcast live from the State Theatre Courtyard over Noongar Radio offering audiences and fans that can't make the event the opportunity to tune in and sense the celebration and community brought to the festival through their lively and inspiring performances.

Enjoy screenings of The Coolbaroo Club, a documentary about the famous locally Aboriginal-run dance club and the powerful short film Wirun featuring Ebony McGuire (Cloudstreet) as a young Aboriginal girl who digs deep with her high school drama performance of a Shakespearean sonnet.

Open, inclusive and accessible for all, the festival aims to bring people, and specifically those of the First Nations, together to celebrate the incredible breadth, diversity and resilience of the world's oldest living cultures.

Even though the Maali Festival is a free event, registrations are essential, visit https://bsstc.com.au/whats-on/maali-festival

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