Since 2012 in Kalbarri, around the 18, 19th of September, there is a festival held that goes over the weekend. It has to do with the history in this area. It began 5 years ago on the 300th anniversary of the Zuytdorp crashing on the cliffs north of Kalbarri. This year is the last year it will run, on the 400th anniversary of Dirk Hartog arriving in Australia and leaving behind the first artifact, the Hartog plate. It began in 2012 and the subject was the Netherlands and the Zuytdorp. In 2013 it was about South Africa, in 2014 it was Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India. In 2015 it was Japan and China. This year the subject is unity and how all of those countries were united through the VOC or (as it roughly translates to in English) the Dutch East India Trading Company.

I really love the Zest Festival and all of the opportunities it has brought to the community and students. I was strongly involved in last years Chamber of Retoric, a performance on the Saturday night that has to do with the year’s subject,. I was one of the four puppeteers that moved the two Japanese samurai brothers. I trained with a professional puppeteer, Karen Hethey, for weeks leading up to the performance. It was amazing to see the whole thing come together and all the work that happened behind the scenes that paid off.

Every year an activity from the country we are studying comes to school. It is normally a musical instrument of some sort. In 2013 drums were brought to the school and all the classes learnt to play. The best students were then chosen to perform at the Chamber of Retoric. In 2014 I was in the group of people chosen to play at the Chamber of Retoric. We played the Gamelan instruments from Indonesia. In 2015 we learnt to play Taiko drums. They were played by professionals at the Saturday night performance.

The Zest Festival has been amazing experience for everyone who has ever visited for the weekend and attended or been involved in the process. I feel very privileged to live in Kalbarri. it’s not every day an opportunity like this comes around and to quote myself from last year “When something like this comes around you have to reach up and take hold of it with both hands”.