On January 26 at The Briars, Mount Martha on Bunurong Land, Kayla Cartledge and the team at Our Songlines are providing an alternative to January 26 celebrations.
In its fourth year running, Our Survival Day on the Mornington Peninsula will be a day filled with music, workshops, nature, art, and activities, with a lineup featuring some of the most exciting First Nations talent this country has to offer.
The space will be a safe one for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and allies to come together to shift the focus of January 26 to one of learning history and practising culture.
Kayla Cartledge, founder of Our Songlines – an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led organisation focused on making Indigenous culture accessible to First Nations Australians and allies – is the steam in the engine propelling Our Survival Day to the forefront of the Mornington Peninsula’s calendars.
Our Survival Day lineup
- Kaiit
- Christine Anu
- Jony Berry
- Jalgany
- Ross Knight
- Wayapa Wuurrk by Barefoot Spirit
- Bush Walks by Living Culture
- Baluk Arts & Artbus
- Womens Weaving
- Kalat Dancers
- Mob Yarns
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
After moving from Larrakia Land up north in the NT to the sleepy suburbs of Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula (Bunurong Land) when she was just a kid, Kayla was struck by the difference in the accessibility to Indigenous Culture. “I created[Our Songlines] to help people be able to experience [Culture] more…to come together and experience different things that were going on and connect to country on a deeper level.”
One of Our Songlines’ biggest contributions to the local community has been providing a safe and inclusive space for all to come together on January 26, and for it to take place so close to home. “Living on the Mornington Peninsula, the only thing we had available was to drive into the city and go to the march,” Kayla says. “[Our Survival Day] was really born out of necessity.” With a relatively big population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders on the Peninsula, Kayla saw the need for a way in which First Nations folk could be around others who also wanted “to practice in respecting culture” on this day. Without a local event to attend and connect to community, Kayla says, “you’re pretty much isolated on that day”.
While geographical isolation of community has been at the forefront of Kayla’s mind when creating the locally-focused Our Survival Day, it’s the difficulties of social isolation that this year’s theme is trying to tackle. Kayla explains that the choice of the theme – ‘Keep Surviving’ – came after an “awful 2023”, a year that, Kayla explains, saw relentless villainisation and discrediting of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. “It felt very isolating, even though we were all going through it as a community,” Kayla says.
The team at Our Survival Day isn’t interested in sugar-coating things. Instead, it became clear that acknowledging the hurt and suffering of the last year – and the last two hundred and fifty years – and coming together through it would be the way to survive. “This day is a significant day, a day of mourning that has been practised for generations,” Kayla says. “There’s no point in pretending it doesn’t exist. It exists.” This year’s theme can speak not only to the last twelve months of survival but the last sixty-five thousand years, and what results is a day of learning and practising with the world’s oldest continuous culture.
Taking place at The Briars, Our Survival Day could not be happening at a more beautiful place. Surrounded by native trees and bushland, the stage is created with the help of a natural amphitheatre curving itself into the hills. “It’s really special,” Kayla says of the space. And sometimes, Kayla teases, it’s not just people enjoying the music – “There are emus that come up and watch the gigs,” she says, giggling. “They’re really curious.”
It’s hard not to be curious with a lineup like the one in store. With talent from all across the nation, Kayla points out the performers that punters should keep a lookout for. Christine Anu, the event’s first Torres Strait Islander performer they’ve managed to secure, is one Kayla says she’s looking forward to. “The other is Kaiit, an incredible young artist who’s got a voice that feels like it belongs in another generation.” Ultimately, it’s voices like those – like Kaiit’s, like Kayla’s – that Our Survival Day is hoping to amplify on this date in our country’s calendar.
Our Survival Day is happening at The Briars (450 Nepean Highway) on January 26, 2024. Find out more at the Our Survival Day website here.
This article was made in partnership with Our Songlines.
