Rainbow Duanwu: Dragon Boat Festival Workshop

This Burwood Art Prize join us for Rainbow Duanwu (Dragon Boat Festival), a bilingual community workshop presented by ANTRA, celebrating Chinese cultural traditions through a contemporary queer lens.

Participants will engage in a short introduction to Duanwu cultural history and queer Chinese narratives, followed by hands-on activities including traditional herbal sachet (香囊) making. The workshop invites attendees to reflect on the theme “I Am Here” through creative participation, storytelling, and shared cultural practice.

This is a welcoming, inclusive space for Chinese-diaspora LGBTQIA+ communities, allies, and the broader public.

This event is free, however spots are limited so bookings are essential - book on the ANTRA website

About Duanwu

Duanwu (the Dragon Boat Festival) is widely known as a Chinese cultural tradition of remembrance, protection, and collective effort—people gathering to prepare zongzi, make protective sachets, and “row together” in the spirit of community. In queer Chinese communities today, Duanwu is also increasingly read through a contemporary LGBTQIA+ lens: as a story about loyalty, exile, and longing, and as an invitation to honour relationships and chosen family that have historically sat at the margins. Positioned during the Burwood Art Prize, in Pride Month and alongside World Refugee Day, this program uses the “dragon boat spirit” as a respectful, wellbeing-focused metaphor for solidarity—moving together, staying together—recognising that many LGBTQIA+ people, including some queer Chinese people and broader diasporas, have experienced displacement or separation in the search for safety, dignity, and belonging.