Whale Dreamers Festival - Norah Head

In June 2006 Colette Baron sat on a headland overlooking the ocean and cried.

The whale-hunting nation of Japan had just been granted permission by the International Whaling Commission to add Humpback Whales to their kill-list for the coming season.

Colette sent out a call to everyone she knew - what could be done to mobilise the community about this outrage?

Among the many replies of support she recieved were messages of, not only hope, but action from three remarkable women- environmental educator and whale watcher, Jeannie Lawson, marine ecologist Roberta Dixon, and community events organiser and whale watcher Nikki Freeburn.

The Darkinjung People tell that the NSW Central Coast is Whale Dreaming Country, and that the whale symbolise 'kinship'. Surely a celebration built on community for the benefit of the whales was a fitting way to peacefully protest the slaughter?

And, so, the Whale Dreamers Festival came to be.