‘After the fire comes renewal’: Yolngu people unbowed as PM urges ‘new path’

First Nations people will renew themselves, despite the hurt of the failed Voice referendum, and continue to pursue a pathway to unity, attendees at the Garma Festival in the Northern Territory have heard.

Yothu Yindi Foundation chief executive Denise Bowden told the crowd at Australia’s largest Indigenous cultural gathering, the result of October’s referendum had been soul-crushing.

Yothu Yindi Foundation CEO Denise Bowden.Credit: Melanie Faith Dove

“Our ancestors made us strong, intelligent, determined people and we have needed all of these qualities as we experienced the referendum result,” she said.

Yothu Yindi chair Djawa Yunupingu said when he spoke at the 2023 Garma Festival that he was determined his people would have a voice in the Australian Constitution the following year.

That was not to be, with the push for an Indigenous Voice to parliament defeated – but Yunupingu said despite this hurt, his people choose to look to the future.

“Yolngu people are not dismissed by a single event,” he said at Gulkula in north-east Arnhem Land on Saturday morning.

“The land is timeless and powerful. It remains and we remain, and I stand here today to tell you we will renew ourselves, not tomorrow, but today.”

“We sought a path to unity and we still seek it, we know that after the fire comes renewal and that goodness rises in the country after the fire has burned through the country.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gave his own reflections about the referendum when he addressed the Garma crowd, saying, “We gave our all. And we fell short.”

But the prime minister told the crowd on Saturday morning, he did not return to Garma to talk about what might have been.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Gumatj leader Djawa Yunupingu at the Garma Festival on Saturday.Credit: AAP

Instead Albanese spoke about a new focus for Indigenous affairs, economic empowerment for First Nations people.

He announced a First Nations Economic Partnership with the Coalition of Peaks, and a $20 million investment to build the Garma Institute, a tertiary education centre owned and run by Yolngu people.

“I have not come back to this place of fire, to rake through the ashes,” he said.

“I am here because my optimism for a better future still burns.

“We can be a country where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have power over their destiny.”

Albanese said it was possible to confront the legacy of dispossession and disadvantage for Indigenous people and close the gap, but required a new path.

“We are living with what’s been tried before,” he said.

“We know where the old models take us, we know where the old road leads.

“We have to make a new path – and walk it together.”

AAP

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