Decorated men from Cherbourg at Warana Festival in Brisbane c1950

The Warana Festival was held annually in Brisbane. Floats were organised by the Department of Native Affairs (DNA) and the main builder of the float was Jack O’Chin.

“Traditional dancers of that era included Stanley Nerang (possibly the dancer second from left, in rear), Dave Mathieson (possibly the dancer sitting on corner at right hand side) and Reggie Lawrence snr (possibly the dancer in the centre). Aunty Gracie Bond remembers that Dave Mathieson wore that head-dress. There was also Charlie Collins, Larry Leedie, Billie Bun Bun and Tommy Walters known as Waterflow.” – Jeanette Brown (nee Malone)

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The Cherbourg Memory is an initiative of the Rationshed Museum and brings together the photos, videos, oral history recordings, documents and other artifacts of our lives on this settlement. It a website, an archive, an educational resource, a recording project, a research data-base, a store of the people’s stories and an interactive space for comments and engagement. We encourage the people of Cherbourg, the Indigenous communities in Australia and others who have experience of our settlement to help us create a living archive of Barambah-Cherbourg. So find out a little more about the Cherbourg Memory, discover how you can Participate, or find out how you can Contribute to the development of the Cherbourg Memory.