Garma 2023: Gapan gallery one of the NT’s most unique art experiences
Pitch black darkness, women wailing and sand underneath with stars above. Take a glimpse into one of Australia’s most unique galleries.
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Dark silhouettes filter between outlines of stringybark trees before the crowd takes their seat on the sandy ground, as the cries of Yolngu women echo out.
Welcome to Gapan Gallery, one of Australia’s most unique galleries.
The gallery opens in almost-pure darkness, with the only light coming from the small rows of candles and the stars above the Northeast Arnhem skies.
The horn of the yidaki plays, before the Yolngu women and artists begin to sing out into the darkness in a haunting milkarri (women’s ritual singing).
Suddenly, in a flash the lights come on - illuminating the small forest of painted trees with artworks hung off them.
Instead of the traditional white gallery walls, the stringybark trees are painted with gapan, a white clay harvested from the local waterways and often used for ceremonial purposes.
First-time artist Dhopiya Yunupingu said she had only been painting for a year before displaying two of her works at this year’s Garma festival Gapan gallery.
“I really want to paint,” Ms Yunupingu said.
Ms Yunupingu said she had painted her clan’s ceremonial dance, depicting the yellow flag dancers against a bright purple background.
“They’re waving, the women,” she said.
Her work was one of more than 20 hanging in the unique Garma gallery, with the prints-alone selling for upwards of $550.
Hundreds of Garma attendees packed into the unusual gallery space, many walking away with a unique piece of north east Arnhem land.
Chief Minister commits to domestic violence reform at Garma
The Territory’s chief minister has recommitted to the Voice and to taking action in consultation with Aboriginal communities on domestic violence, incarceration rates and infrastructure needs of remote communities.
During her keynote address at Garma on Friday, Natasha Fyles said she continued to support the Voice referendum, 12 months after it was first announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at last year’s Garma Festival.
Ms Fyles said the idea of a Voice to Parliament was “not a new concept”, but a continuation of a long legacy of Indigenous leadership particularly by the late Garma Festival founder, Yunupingu.
She said the upcoming referendum – which still does not have a confirmed date – was another part of Yunupingu’s struggle for Indigenous rights and his “quest for perfection”, Djambatj.
“(We’re) carrying forward, what he passed onto us,” Ms Fyles said.
“Aboriginal people have been speaking. The Voice is about whether we are prepared to truly listen.”
Ms Fyles said after listening to the organisers of Garma, she was recommitting to making domestic and family violence as a priority area for her government.
“If we can keep our families together, rather than seeing the heartbreak, dysfunction, violence and then an endless loop of incarceration, then we can achieve so much more,” Ms Fyles said.
“We are working with Aboriginal leaders and communities across the Territory with unprecedented commitments toward new, community-led solutions.”
In 2022, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said nearly 70 per cent of the Territory’s prison population were locked up for domestic violence related offences, compared to 21 per cent nationally.
An ongoing coronial inquest has heard that over the past 10 years abuse in Territory homes had increased by 117 per cent, with modelling predicting it could rise by a further 73 per cent in the next decade.
Ms Fyles said her government had committed to funding alternatives-to-custody, Aboriginal-led community courts, support for victims and survivors, but also to changing the behaviours of their abusers.
But standing underneath the Garrtjambal Auditorium, Ms Fyles said real change in community was not going to come from Canberra or Darwin.
“It hasn’t worked in the past. It won’t work in the future. You have to tell us the change you want to see happen, and how you want to run things — and then we have to work with you,” she said.
“Importantly, we are returning power to communities through Local Decision Making.”
This is despite a recent parliamentary review of Local Decision Making frameworks finding there was “considerable confusion” about the scheme — even within the 11 communities which had active LDM agreements.
The Committee made eight recommendations to improve LDM agreements, including more clarity, transparency and funding, as well as better engagement with communities, councils and the federal government.
Ms Fyles also committed to major improvements on the Gove District Hospital, works on the Central Arnhem Highway and upgrades to the fibre network across East Arnhem.
She said the Territory would invest in new wifi for homelands, new or extended art galleries in Yirrkala and Gapuwiyak, as well as a 10-year plan to grow the Arnhem region economy by 2000 new jobs.
It comes as the commonwealth recommitted $6.4m towards the new tertiary Garma Institute in northeast Arnhem Land.
Ms Fyles said these investments were not due to “luck” but the tireless efforts of the community in advocating and fighting for their region.
“That has come about because you have a voice. And we are listening,” Ms Fyles said.
“It has come about because you seek Djambatj.”
Garma pays tribute to founder and land rights pioneer Yunupingu
The tapping of the bilma rhythm sticks and the voices of his Gumatj clan have ushered the spirit of Yunupingu closer to the opening ceremony of this year’s Garma Festival.
The 2023 event is the first to be held since the passing of the Indigenous rights activist and land rights pioneer earlier this year.
On Friday, singers young and old, performed at the opening ceremony to remember and honour the 74-year-old Yolngu leader.
His family told the crowd about the man, leader and Elder who exemplified the theme of this year’s Garma Festival — Djambatj meaning perfection and excellence.
His niece Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs remembered her uncle as a 15-year-old, sitting silently with his Elders and taking in their words, stories and visions for the future.
She said as a young man, Yunupingu had turned his aspirations for his Gumajt people, northeast Arnhem Land and all Indigenous peoples into his music and songs.
“When we all look back, it was his way of expressing himself, expressing his love for his land and for his culture,” she said.
“And what was really right.”
Bringing her family up to the stage Ms Ganambarr-Stubbs said her people would continue to echo her uncle’s message, singing the Yolngu song “Now Balanda Say We Lost Our Land in 1788”.
Ms Ganambarr-Stubbs said the song — which reaffirmed her people’s continued custodianship of their land — was particularly powerful on the anniversary of the announcement of the Voice referendum at the 2022 Garma Festival.
Rirratjingu woman and facilitator Mayatili Marika said the festival founder’s spirit was still palpable under the Garrtjambal Auditorium, where for years politicians, academics and community figures had gathered to discuss the country’s future and relationship with First Nations peoples.
“Like all Gumajt who have left us he remains with us,” Ms Marika said.
One of Yunupingu’s wives, Andrea Collins, spoke directly to his spirit, telling him: “I know you’re listening”.
The Murri woman who found love in the Mirwatj (sunrise country) brought laughter back to the mourning Garma crowd, sharing some of Yunupingu’s more surreal interactions with governments and officials.
Ms Collins said a baby-Yunupingu had been held by future Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in a chance encounter on a beach while Mr Whitlam was serving in the military.
She said Mr Whitlam asked a Yolngu chief to hold his baby, Yunupingu.
“That little baby relieved himself on me,” Ms Collins recalled Mr Whitlam telling them years later.
“And has done so on successive Prime Ministers ever since.”
Territory lawyer Sean Bowden said Yunupingu’s part time job was “cajoling” generations of Australian Prime Ministers and NT Chief Ministers.
“His real job was the family and the future,” he said.
Dela Munungurr, one of Yunupingu’s remaining three sisters, said even from his hospital bed her brother was anchored and unshakeable.
“If you be strong for me, I’ll be strong for you,” he told her.
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