Djeembana yalinwa (Community Day)
Monash University Clayton Campus
FREE TICKETED EVENT
Join us for djeembana yalinwa, a celebration of First Nations culture featuring live music, storytelling and local artisans.
Djeembana yalinwa brings together a vibrant program of music, food, community and family-friendly experiences in a day-long celebration of First Nations culture across the festival precinct.
Spend the day browsing the stalls and community market for handcrafted goods and treasures. Settle in on the Forum Lawn with a picnic rug and enjoy incredible live music presented by Songlines Aboriginal Music, alongside delicious First Nations food and drinks.
Then, from 4:00pm, join us in the Robert Blackwood Hall for a spectacular free concert featuring the multi-award-winning Electric Fields, Velvet Trip and Alice Skye. Tickets are free, but registration is essential for this part of the day.
Want more? Extend your djeembana yalinwa experience with a range of beautiful and thought-provoking ticketed events, including:
Decolonising The Bells
Blakademia
Two Blood
Community Market and Outdoor Stage
Curated by Songlines Aboriginal Music
Ceremonial Lawn | 1- 4pm
Dungala Baimi
Dungala Baimi (“River Spirit” in the Yorta Yorta language) is an up-and-coming band based in Narrm. They create a captivating blend of soul, blues and storytelling music. Committed to authenticity, Dungala Baimi draw from their own life experiences to explore the challenges of modern life. Through evocative lyrics that tackle themes of resilience, identity and connection, they invite listeners to reflect on the world around them. They are more than the sum of their parts, with members bringing their unique experiences and sounds to create an experience rich in harmony and soul.
Leo Whyman
Leo Whyman is a proud Makwarra-Barkindji and Wiradjuri artist whose lyricism takes audiences on a journey of healing and empowerment. Whyman strives to make music that heals hurting hearts, using her voice as a platform to shed light on difficult topics. She has performed at events such as The Gathering: WINTERFEAST (TAS) ’24 & ’25, Brunswick Music Festival ’25, Coburg Night Market ’24, Share The Spirit at Sidney Myer Music Bowl ’24, and YIRRAMBOI ’23.
Canisha
Trawlwoolway and Wiradjuri artist Canisha is a soulful singer with an edge, a lyricist whose emotive and playful music captivates and draws you in. Her debut EP, DON’T BE SCARED, released in 2024 via Bad Apples Music, showcases her confident and lush pop sound. Canisha’s music is textured and rich, with inviting and warm vocals. Inspired by artists like Adele and Harry Styles, she has grown in confidence and purpose, using music to overcome social anxiety and connect with audiences. She has performed at YIRRAMBOI Festival, St Kilda Music Festival, Share the Spirit at Sidney Myer Music Bowl, and Treaty Day Out.
Alongside a growing festival profile, Canisha has been recognised through the Archie Roach Foundation’s Singing Our Futures program and Mushroom Group’s First Nations Pathway Program.
Djeembana yalinwa Concert
Robert Blackwood Hall | 4-7pm
Alice Skye
Alice Skye is a multi-award-winning musician unbound by any artistic parameter, her body of work sparkling with harmonic sensitivity and maturity well beyond its years. Once-private bedroom scribbles are presented as articulate lyrics on love, loss and life, offering a looking-glass into the world.
Recipient of Music Victoria’s ‘Best Pop Act’ award in 2021, the Wergaia/Wemba Wemba woman continues to openly synthesise her own life and times with profound finesse, offering raw and beautiful pieces of reflective music to her growing listener base.
The gentle moodiness of Skye’s songwriting is described by NME as “nuanced, open-hearted revelations”, and matched with a voice so hopeful and haunting, naturally sweet and dreamlike, the melancholy presented by Alice Skye could not be more inviting.
Velvet Trip
Velvet Trip is the psychedelic music project of Wiradjuri man Zeppelin Hamilton, born and conceived in Gadigal Country. Blending psych-rock, indie-pop and soulful groove, Velvet Trip has emerged as one of Australia’s most exciting and forward-thinking new voices. Since releasing their album Harmony Blooms in 2024, the band has achieved ARIA chart success, triple j high rotation, and #1 on the AMRAP Metro Charts, alongside major editorial support across Spotify and Apple Music.
The group has been featured in NME, The New York Times (T-Mag), RUSSH Magazine, and was selected for Mushroom Group’s ‘First Nations Pathway Program’. 2025 was a defining year for Velvet Trip, following mesmerising standout performances at triple j’s One Night Stand, Bluesfest, and a sold-out headline show at the Sydney Opera House.
With their sophomore album, Glimmers Continued, released in January 2026, Velvet Trip continues to push into new sonic territory while staying rooted in Hamilton’s signature dreamlike production and vivid storytelling. Ever-evolving and uncompromising in vision, Velvet Trip is riding a wave of explosive growth and gearing up to take on the global stage.
Electric Fields
Multi-award-winning Electric Fields create a striking and haunting merging of living traditional culture with electronic music. Featuring the extraordinary voice of Zaachariaha Fielding – who often sings in his traditional languages of the Anangu people – with the brilliance of producer Michael Ross – Electric Fields music ranges from soulful pop to epic-scale electronic works, through to intensely intimate story-songs.
This ARIA and NIMA award-winning duo has performed all across Australia and the world, including at Eurovision, the Sydney Opera House, and with the Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland Symphony Orchestras.
