AustLit

'Once a year in Broome, locals and tourists gather on Carnarvon Street to wait for the dragon. Adults keep cameras poised, while kids look down the road expectantly, hopping with impatience. The drums start, then the cymbals. They bang and clash together in time, and people cheer as the music gets closer. Finally, the dragon comes into view. His large head is adorned with colourful pompoms, his white teeth bared. His bright scaly body bobs up and down to the beat of the drum as he snakes his way around the crowd. Inside the dragon costume (affectionately dubbed Sammy the Dragon) are fifteen men sweating in the humid dusk, holding poles to keep the cloth body up. Their human legs move the dancing dragon through the crowd and down the Chinatown strip.' (Publication abstract)