Each year the Cimbrian culture lives again in Roana with the festival HOGA ZAIT, an expression of the Cimbro world. This year the theme was Australia and the aim of the event was to reconnect and interact with different cultures born of immigration to the country "down-under".
"There can be no culture if there is not truth and a direct connection with the historical source and also with the ancestral memory of the direct descendants and representatives" says Florio Pozza, artist Italian /Australian and co-director of the Cimbro Festival with Andrea Valente, artistic director and head of the cultural dept. of the town of Roana.
Hoga Zait Festival
The festival was organized by the city of Roana in its surroundings areas and this year has had a great response and success with the public (both tourist and Cimbro) which enjoyed the planned events. Australia was one of the destinations chosen by the high emigration of the last century and the connections between the two cultures was heard and made palpable in the many events.
The events were designed both to raise awareness of the two cultures in their identity to increase interaction. In these, the artists have expressed their talent and style starting with their 'roots', Cimbrian and Aboriginal. Legends, history, art, music, customs and traditions have interacted with each other, creating works of great beauty and cultural value. 'Anguanagoana dance', 'The Cukiridoo song', 'The Australian dream', 'Lights-ab origins of Tunkelbalt', 'Anguana dreaming', 'Letter from Australia Mario Rigoni Stern' are some of the headings representing multicultural interaction.
The Schellatragar, representatives of the six villages of Roanoke, and keepers of the cimbra bell, have 'baptized' every event involving each time different instruments, from percussion to didgeridoo to gayandi, creating symbolically universal sounds of nature.
If artistic and cultural interaction is possible, then the dialogue between peoples in the name of the knowledge of respect and peace is possible. The festival ended with a live stream with the Cimbrian community of Melbourne who had witnessed the whole evening of music readings and dance. The Australians then started to tell their stories, anecdotes and tales related to their experience with direct relevance to the Cimbrian epic, resulting in an evening of great emotional impact.
Cimbro culture and Australian culture
The many cultural and artistic elements of the two cultures can reveal, give meaning and sense of things through "new forms of expression". For example, the language of the didgeridoo is based on the same principle of the obsessions of 'madness' of artist Carlo Zinelli, one of the greatest exponents in the world of
Brut art, and projects in another dimension in which music and madness form a dialogue generating harmony.
The ‘dotted’ Aboriginal art form also appeared among the Sirens, the fairytale Cimbrian characters dwelling in mountain sources and waterways. Contemporary dance interacted with the movements of the Aboriginal dance to the sound of the didgeridoo and the "cuco". Graffiti of the Val d'Assa became light sculptures.
Finally David Hudson, Aboriginal Australian and Queensland based forerunner of the spread of the didgeridoo and the Aboriginal culture in the world since the 80s, was one of the 'sources' who interacted with the population enjoying great success. His attitude to dialogue and interchange and the beauty of his music combined with images and video of Australia has enchanted the audiences.
Another Aboriginal 'source' was Rina Louise Dal Cengio, an Aboriginal of Gubbi people of Queensland by mother's side, who participated and animated a workshop on Aboriginal painting. The festival has the support of the Australian Embassy.
Florio Pozza participated as an artist, guitarist and didgeridoo player in various events of the festival, creating interaction between the musical and literary traditions. The most intense and significant parts of his participation, were a duet with David Hudson who invited him spontaneously to play, and the duet between didjeridoo and high plain ‘cuci’ played by Moreno Cora.
Cimbra and Australian cultures are poles apart but similar in many ways: they are united by art and music that created the original emotion, curiosity, beauty, and especially dialogue (which is the meaning of true human evolution).
Follow us