Aboriginal bands, experimental dance and a Hindu epic: the highlights of Perth Festival 2025

By Jonathan W. Marshall, Associate Professor & Postgraduate Research Coordinator, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University

In the Perth Festival exhibitions brochure, artistic director Anna Reece noted that the city is “uniquely positioned in relation to Southeast Asia considering proximity and shared time zones”.

Together with the gripping yet inhuman dance work Larsen C, it was the presentation of Australian First Nations and contemporary Southeast Asian storytelling that most resonated for me in this year’s festival.

Big Name, No Blankets

Big Name, No Blankets chronicled the history of the Warumpi Band, the first rock band to be nationally broadcast singing in an Aboriginal language.…

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