A small crowd of people got a sneak peek yesterday as part of the Tarerer Festival, which commences today in Killarney.

The Kenbi Dancers, who have traveled from the Top End for the occasion, gave a quick performance to a group of enthralled onlookers at Harris Street Reserve yesterday that involved them hunting a buffalo and even searching between audience members’ legs looking for mud crabs.

The in-demand dance group subsists in a small community of about 175 people at Belyuen, 18 kilometres across the harbour from Darwin.

According to their manager Steve Brown, the dancers love sharing their culture.
“Our big thing is involving the audience and bringing them into dance with us, so everyone is in together, as one,” Mr Brown said.

The Kenbi Dancers are Larrakia people and Mr Brown said their culture was very much active.
“Their language is very strong,” he said. “In their community they have about 10 different languages . . . even among these nine dancers, they might be all from the same family, but they still have two or three different languages.”

“It’s good they can come down (here) to a place where the culture has been broken down over the years and bring their culture, which is really strong, and it may help them to build it up here again.”
The Kenbi Dancers, and many other performers, will perform at the Tarerer Festival today and tomorrow at the Killarney Recreation Reserve.