Garma festival brings together ancient and new

Ancient Yolngu culture, politics and Tai Chi with actor Jack Thompson are all part of the whirlwind Garma festival in northeast Arnhem Land.

Children take part in a ceremonial dance at the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land on Friday. Picture: AFP

Ancient Yolngu culture, modern politics, and Tai Chi with Australian screen legend Jack Thompson are all part of the whirlwind Garma Festival in northeast Arnhem Land.

Australia’s biggest celebration of Aboriginal culture has again attracted more than 2000 guests for four days of panel discussions about Indigenous affairs, traditional dance and a brush with the world’s oldest continuing culture.

Among the campers this weekend are newly arrived US ambassador Caroline Kennedy, JFK’s daughter, who slept in a tent and then lined up for meals at the outdoor kitchen along with the other guests.

On Friday, she took a tour of the community’s new bilingual school at Gunyangara. Ms Kennedy watched the students assemble robots. “It’s really wonderful,” she said.

The school, which opened last April, is the result of years of frustration that mainstream schooling was failing Gumatj children. Early signs are promising: 75 per cent of enrolled students have an attendance record of more than 90 per cent.

The school is part of a recent movement to ensure Yolngu kids can complete year 12 in Arnhem Land if they choose, instead of being required to travel to boarding school in Darwin or another state.

At a panel discussion on schools on Friday, Yolngu woman Yananymul Mununggurr remembered a time when it was forbidden for children to speak their first language, Yolngu, at school.

“You got a smack if you were talking in language in the classroom,” Ms Mununggurr recalled.

The festival began officially on Friday afternoon after Anthony Albanese arrived with parliamentary colleagues including Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney.

On Friday night, he and his senior cabinet colleagues sat down for an open-air dinner with the Gumatj leadership known as the Dilak council.

Gumatj leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu delivered a strident demand for constitutional reform at his last Garma appearance in 2019, before the global pandemic enforced a two-year hiatus on the festival. However, this year his friend, actor Jack Thompson, read out his call for meaningful constitutional recognition for the Gumatj people. Dr Yunupingu spoke only to welcome guests and the Prime Minister.

Seated in a wheelchair, the patriarch gave Mr Albanese a ceremonial yidaki and said: “A gift from the Gumatj families, and the Gumatj people of this land, from this place to the PM.”

The clan leader turned 74 in June and is now 24 years older than the average life expectancy of a Gumatj man.

In his welcome letter to the more than 2000 Garma guests who began arriving on Thursday, Dr Yunupingu said he now had great grandchildren.

“They are my little fathers and mothers and they call me their son,” he writes in the letter.

“Isn’t that something if you think about it. It is the renewal that is built into our system of life – these children, many of them young adults – are now my leaders, my future, and I am their child, waiting for them to look after me as I get to the final stages of my life.”

Garma began in 1999 as a barbecue. It was little more than a gathering of extended family but has become the largest annual celebration of Aboriginal culture and the place for weighty discussions by Indigenous leaders from around Australia, as well as business leaders and politicians.

The festival itinerary also includes some unexpected events such as morning yoga and Tai Chi with Thompson.