View a video report by David Choróbski

The Lajkonik suitcases were packed, as they had already been packed for the concert in Wollongong the week before. Thanks to the generosity of the people in Wollongong, we had nearly $2,000 in our account raised from that Preview Concert the week before, to help with food expenses. Sydney was cold and miserable, but everyone arrived in good time, decked out in their Lajkonik jackets and new Lajkonik shirts. There were 22 people in this contingent, including members of our new Lajkonik choir, and six more were to fly on Sunday night. There was excitement all round that we were actually going.

Check-ins were seamless (except that I lost my “n”th pair of scissors ☹) and so was the flight. We arrived into the warm night air of Darwin just before 8pm (temperature was 26 degrees), and after some difficulties getting maxi cabs back to the CBD Darwin YHA hostel where we were to stay, we and all our large luggage bags with costumes, found ourselves crowding out the narrow reception foyer trying to figure out the room allocations after “the System” had randomly allocated us into our 9 rooms without any consideration of the list we had sent through weeks before.

This took more time and it was nearly midnight before we were settling into our very, very basic hostel rooms. Music was blaring on the first floor terrace and we were very conscious of the fact that we were in a “party hostel”. Then again it was Saturday night and Darwin has a large worker population. Darwin parties hard on Saturday nights. Our hostel was in the centre of town, close to cafes, bars, restaurants, great shopping and the waterfront. As we had no day-to-day transport of our own, it was important to have access to all of these things.

The following morning, we all met in the café next to the hostel, for our first Lajkonik breakfast. Good coffee and cooked breakfasts for all. After that, the dancers went off exploring the town, whilst I and some of the parents and choir members tried to figure out a plan of action for the rest of week. The kitchen was far too small for a hostel of 300 guests and totally inadequate, so we decided that we would do breakfasts out on the terrace. Coles was across the road, so every morning we just bought milk, breadrolls, croissants, fresh fruit, yoghurts etc and of course we had teas and coffee. We made it work.

We divided our very mixed group into 5 groups mixing up the choir, senior and younger dancers, calling the groups Polonez, Mazur, Krakowiak, Kujawiak and Oberek. On a rolling system, each group had to either shop and prepare, or pack and clean up/make sandwiches for the day ahead. Sunday evening we attended 7pm Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in Darwin, meeting the lovely retired Bishop Eugene who welcomed us warmly. It was so lovely to be together in the north of Australia.

We were invited to visit the Cathedral, St Mary’s Star of the Sea@ 90 Smith Street 5.15-6.00 pm before dinner. Viewing the stunning stain glass windows, the angel statues that survived WW2 bombing and amazing cyclone ready architecture.

On Monday, 6 of the designated drivers, two for each vehicle, headed off to the car hire place to pick up our 3 twelve-seater vans. By 9.30am we were off to Lichfield National Plan which is about 140km away. We were joined by the remaining group members who had arrived late Sunday night with one more to join us on Wednesday. The weather was perfect – 30 degrees and blue skies. On the way, stopping briefly in Batchelor, we stopped at the Zebra Rock Gallery, saw massive termite mounds, had home-made sandwiches for lunch and swam in the beautiful natural plunge pool at the base of Tolmer Falls. We returned back to Darwin via Berry Springs seeing beautiful and different landscapes along the way.

The next morning everyone had to be up at 5am. Groups 3 and 4 had to make sandwiches with products bought the night before, and quite miraculously we were on the road to Kakadu by 5 minutes past 6.00am. As fully anticipated, I had to bang on the door of the younger group of boys at 25min to 6, turn on the light and say “Good morning, out of bed NOW. If you’re not down in the car park by 6am we are going without you and you can explain to your parents why you missed out on the cruise at Kakadu!!!” “And there is no refund!” Kakadu was 300km or approximately a 3.5 hour drive from Darwin.

David was driving my bus (I picked the best co-driver I think), which gave me a full view of the beautiful sunrise out to the left. My bus this day included all the choir, as it was our intention to practice our songs on the way to Kakadu, and that’s what we did. As there was no time for breakfast, we had scheduled a stop along the way at a roadhouse for 8am. By that time we were all hungry and our sandwiches tasted good. Many of us also bought some strong coffee. The roadhouse had a couple of emus in an adjacent paddock and a live crocodile enclosure so we all went over to see the animal attractions and take photos.

We were to be at Yellow River Cruise wharf in Kakadu by 11am and could not be late, so there was no time to waste. As it turned out we arrived early at 10.15am with enough time to stop in at the Aboriginal Visitors Centre to buy some gifts for special people back home, and visit bathrooms. The Yellow River Cruise was an absolute highlight. It was a large roofed barge with seating for about 40 people so mostly Lajkonik and one other smaller group. We had a wonderful passionate guide who just loved to share interesting details about the whole ecosystem of this beautiful waterway. He talked and showed us each of the many types of birds, trees and plants, and of course we saw some huge crocodiles at only a few metres distance. We were ALL deeply inspired by the talk and the place, taking lots of photos.

Some spectacular lookouts, rock formations and ancient rock art at Nouralangie were the next attractions on the itinery so we did quite a bit of walking and climbing. One bus was low on petrol and had to head back to the service station, but most of us were able to enjoy this very special place in Kakadu.Driving back we witnessed another beautiful sunset. We were tired but happy.

Wednesday was a free- time day. Some dancers went swimming at the Water Park at the edge of Darwin Harbour, others such as myself, my daughter Joasia and some of the younger dancers took a cruise on the harbour which was created to inform people about the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese on 19 February 1942, about 10 weeks after Pearl Harbour was bombed. Some history books record that 300 lost their lives, but our tour guide said it was over 1,000. He told us that the truth of what happened was kept secret by the Australian Government for many years as they were embarrassed about how unprepared for invasion Australia was. It was all very interesting.

After the cruise, we coincidentally met up with more people from our group on the waterfront, and so we put three tables together and had a lovely lunch. There were lots of different eateries so lots of choice. Again the weather was perfect, warm, dry and sunny. Afterwards, some of us went to the waterfront museum which also has interactive displays about the bombing of Darwin and displays about the Royal Flying Doctor Service including a full size decommissioned aeroplane.

Joasia, Hieronim and I had to rush back to the Hostel, to be picked up by Ola Metcalf, President of the NT Polish Association. Ola drove us to University Theatre which was about 25 minutes out of Darwin CBD. There we had a theatre induction by the venue co-ordinator so that we could plan how we were going to do this concert. Unfortunately, there was no professional sound/lighting technician available on the night of our concert. We had some quick basic training. We were very worried about this as the theatre had some high level sound and lighting systems. How could we manage???

Ola dropped us back at the YHA, and Joasia and I had to rush off to an induction at the Tracks Dance Studio where two concert rehearsals would be held. It was about a 15min walk to the dance studio, and another 15min walk back afterwards. We certainly covered a lot of ground walking everywhere! After a quick dinner we were back again at the dance studio for the first rehearsal which started at 8pm and finished at 10pm. We fixed some issues in Polonez and whilst everyone was a little tired, we knew what we were here in Darwin for and we knew the rehearsals were necessary. The Choir rehearsed on their own back at the YHA. Walking back to the YHA we all kept close in a group. Darwin is not safe particularly safe at night time (sadly).

Thursday morning was again free time. After another excellent breakfast on the YHA Terrace with fresh fruit and croissants, most of the dancers went off to swim in the water park. By 2pm, the whole group including Choir was required to be at Tracks Dance Studio at 1.45pm. A complete run-through of the concert followed. It went quite well as we already knew the order of the concert. We were really quite well prepared but just wanted to get things as perfect as possible. Rehearsal finished a little earlier as we were all due down at Jervois Road Reserve for a Sunset picnic with pizzas, at which we were to meet and get to know the members of the NT Polish Association. It ended up being a lovely event with singing of Polish songs and lots of good conversation about life and work in the City of Darwin. We were very grateful for their generosity and hospitality.

Friday morning was breakfast in the café next to YHA. I sat with Gregory Kinda, our concert pianist who had stepped in to replace Chris Malek when Chris injured his hand. Gregory had arrived late Thursday night. After breakfast it was time to pack our costumes and board the bus to the Theatre. We negotiated a far earlier bump in time, ie 12 noon, at the Theatre so we could be well prepared, fed and rested. Our initial tasks upon arrival were to set up the dressing rooms and areas, see if we could turn on and operate the advanced sound and lighting systems, check the hanging of the wings, mark the stage, set up the positioning of the microphones etc. A venue sound technician did come in for half an hour or so to help us a little, but after that we were on our own. This was not ideal but could not be helped.

After a number of run-throughs with dances and songs, Abigail’s poetry, Gregory warming up on the Yamaha Grand Piano, and eating the leftovers pizzas etc. before we knew it, it was 6pm, and time to get into costumes. The concert started after a short delay. An audience of about 70 people including our Polish Consul-General, Monika Konczyk, who travelled up from Sydney for passport duty as well as to be present at our concert, enjoyed the cultural showcase which we prepared.

Short speech by Consul General Monika Konczyk

The concert went smoothly, taking into consideration our lack of professional support and lack of familiarity with this specialist performance venue. Hieronim took charge of the lights in the control room. Our younger girls were responsible for queuing the music for every item except for the ones they were in. Two of our choir men also acted as stage crew – moving microphones on, microphones off, piano on, piano off etc.

How can we operate this sophisticated audio system? Would it not be easier to tame a crocodile?

Choir ladies helped with ironing costumes and with costume changes. One parent filmed and took photos. Everyone had an important job to do, and the result was really quite remarkable in terms of teamwork. We finished with full Company on stage and our farewell piece of music was “Bo wszyscy Polacy to Jedna Rodzina”. Members of the audience mingled with dancers after the concert in the theatre foyer, and told us how much they enjoyed our unique folk/classical music concert.

I should also mention that I gave a short presentation on the work of Kosciuszko Heritage Incorporated (KHI) of which I am a board member. KHI has provided us with support for this trip by funding the appearance of Gregory Kinda. Brochures supplied by KHI were included with the concert programme, as well as KHI books and publications given to the Polish Association to help promote knowledge about Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki, General Tadeusz Kosciuszko and the work and achievements of the Organisation KHI.

Saturday was time to do more walking, shopping, swimming and relaxing. In the evening we all met up at a local bar for a well-earned dinner, drinks and all round basking in the joy and success of the concert, and the many adventures which we had enjoyed.

Up again at 4am to board a 5am shuttle bus to the airport. Another seamless check in and 7am flight back to Sydney. It was good to be back in my own bed and happy knowing that the trip was a big success. We did it!

Ursula Lang
LAJKONIC Artistic Director

Obejrzyj wideoreporta¿yk Dawida Choróbskiego