SHINJU MATSURI

August 27, 2010 Friday

Ever since we arrived in Broome, there have been articles in the local paper about the upcoming Shinju Matsuri Festival at the end of August. At first we thought it was some celebration for the Japanese residents of Broome. But it turned out to be a celebration of the multicultural heritage of Broome. Shinju Matsuri is Japanese for “The Festival of the Pearl.” Broome developed because of the giant oysters that grow in the ocean near here. They supplied the world with mother-of-pearl for buttons. The Japanese saved Broome from dying when they came over and began the cultured pearl industry after demand for mother of pearl died when plastic buttons replaced the mother of pearl buttons in the 1950s. So Japan is honored because of what it did for Broome by giving the festival a Japanese name and theme.
It began this afternoon at Towne Beach Park. All around the perimeter of the park were the food, clothing, trinket vendors who are there for Staircase of the Moon each month. The first half hour or so was taken up by the officials greeting and talking and thanking. However, they did have an Aboriginal woman talk since “they were the first owners of the land.” She gave each sentence of her speech in her native language and then translated it into English. She’s obviously well educated, very sharp and still mindful of her Aboriginal heritage. It was interesting to hear the language spoken. I hadn’t ever heard it before. The president of the festival is an aboriginal fellow name Steve something. The woman who introduced him commented that everyone called him “Bama.” When he stood up, he asked that no one put an “O” in front of that. It got a good laugh. After he talked, he introduced this year’s Shinju Matsuri Patron (kind of like the Grand Marshall of the Days of 47 Parade), Kevin Puertollama. We had talked to Kevin a few weeks earlier after an article about him had appeared in the paper. He’s a mix of races, and in the article he’d talked about doing his family history and how important he felt it was for people to find out their heritage. We had hoped to have him come to the Family History exhibit we did in the library, but he was going to Darwin that week. Anyway, he got up, said a few things about the festival and then said he was a great example of the multicultural heritage of Broome. He then proceeded to explain the many cultures his ancestors came from and encouraged people to trace their family history. Later we were able to thank him for giving family history a plug.
Then came the Parade of Nations where people were to come in carrying flags from all the nations represented here in Broome. Just before it began they mentioned that they still needed volunteers to carry some flags. Then they asked again. Orson had gone to the car for the camera (we’d already carried in our chairs). So I got up, went across the bridge, and picked up the flag of Papua New Guinea (big island northeast of here). We were lined up alphabetically. A 10 year old girl with the flag from Norway stood in front of me. Then a woman, obviously her mother, carrying the flag of Brazil walked over to check on her. I ever so graciously offered to carry the Brazilian flag so she could walk with her daughter. She accepted. So I got to carry the Brazilian flag in the Parade of Nations! (I served my first mission in Brazil.) Meanwhile Orson had gone back to where we had been standing and was taking pictures. He was amazed to see his wife walk in carrying a flag. There were probably 40 flags. A few of the flag bearers were in costume of their native lands. We posted them on poles set around in an oval in front of the many vendors.
The waking of “Sammy the Dragon” was the culmination of the opening ceremonies. A beautiful Japanese dragon “walked” in and took its place lying down in the middle of the grass. Then a bunch of firecrackers went off awakening the dragon. His head came up and then the rest of him stood up. Drums began beating and he circled the area then doubled back around “under” himself. He did that several times. He was probably 40 feet long. He broke through the crowd of people and then came back in at another point surprising those who thought he’d left the area. A couple of baby dragons came in and followed him around. They were carried by kids about 10 years of age and there were probably 6 kids in each of those. They were cute.
After that we bought a couple of steak burgers from Tony, the camel owner. Before it all started, we had a chance to talk with him for a few minutes. He has watched the Restoration DVD and said he wanted to watch it a couple more times. He said his reading is progressing very slowly. His partner, Claudia, was there also. She was pretty friendly with us which was a nice change from the first time we met her.
We ate our burgers and chatted with a couple from Victoria. We ended up talking politics (Australia’s are a mess also). They don’t understand why we don’t want universal healthcare because they saw Michael Moore’s movie about it and how so many people are suffering miserably in the states because of our terrible healthcare system. They also think Americans are ruining the world because we consume so much of the world’s oil and are so wasteful and non-environmentally friendly. I think we were able to explain the healthcare issue so they understood it, but I’m sure they still think we aren’t doing our fair share to help the world.