By Alex Bainbridge
ROSEBERY, Tasmania — The second annual Rosebery Miners, Axemen, Bush and Blarney Festival was held here over the long weekend February 27-March 1. It attracted hundreds of people — from Rosebery and other towns on Tasmania's west coast as well as people from all over Tasmania and even the mainland.
There were more than 30 performers as well as "the state's premier folk bands", according to festival organiser Ian Jamieson. The festival included concerts, sessions, a poets' corner, puppetry and craft markets.
Jamieson points to the boost given to local organising around cultural and political activities in measuring the success of the festival over the past two years.
"The festival has really inspired people to begin to look towards the community as a source of fun and culture, rather than watching Rage on the television" he said. "People are creating their own forms of entertainment, which naturally reflect our environment — both the rainforest we live in and the mining culture."
One example of the flowering of cultural activities is the project of a Zeehan woman, Jenny Shore. Shore is writing a play about Marie Pitt, a feminist and socialist poet who was a member of the Victorian Socialist Party and lived for most of her life on the Tasmanian west coast.
Rosebery's "bottom pub" was recently bought by a local resident when the 100-year-old pub looked likely to close. There are plans to use it for a range of activities as diverse as women's blues, Irish folk music, poetry and theatre. While the area is a little short of songwriters, Jamieson remarks, "We've sure got some great poets".
"The point of the whole thing is for the community to express themselves rather than have entertainment foisted on them", says Jamieson. "It's about sharing skills and talents and to bring the community together."
The festival is run for and by the local community, and all proceeds go to the artists who performed.
Highlights of the festival include the poets' corner and the puppet theatre. Both forms of expression bring alive and popularise the pioneering history of the west coast. Two and a half metre puppets humorously dramatised some of the more colourful characters of the past, and tears were wept to some of the poetry vividly describing the hardship for all — women, men and children — associated with mining.
Reclaiming a sense of local history and community spirit, given the attempts of the state government to destroy both through political and economical restructuring, is extremely valuable.
"The name reflects what we're about and the type of entertainment we're aiming at", Jamieson says. "Axemen is perhaps a bit far-fetched — but relates to the fact that we live in the middle of the rainforest — and bush and blarney indicate that we're about having a good time."
Jamieson says that the west coast miners are concerned about environmental issues — "We see first hand the beauty of the rainforest as well as the destruction" — but are turned off by the tendency of many environmental activists to identify mining and timber workers (who aren't responsible for the destructive practices of their industries) with their bosses.