Australia’s largest Indigenous festival, Garma, will return for its 2024 edition in the Northern Territory this weekend.
The annual event, hosted by First Nations charity Yothu Yindi Foundation, takes place on Yolŋu country in north-east Arnhem Land and will be the first after last year’s Voice to Parliament referendum.
Community leaders, policy experts and Government ministers will discuss issues impacting First Nations communities during hands-on cultural workshops and forums.
Here’s what you need to know.
Garma
Garma is a Yolŋu Matha word meaning ‘two-way learning’.
The festival celebrates music, art, film, education, and political discussion.
The event draws on the long history of political activism of Yolŋu leaders, who in 1963 sent a petition to the House of Representatives written on bark to oppose a decision to put a bauxite mine on their land, a significant early chapter in the land rights struggle.
Garma Festival 2024 theme
This year’s festival theme is Gurtha-Wuma Worrk-gu, meaning fire, strength and renewal.
Organisers say it’s fitting as First Nations people across the country continue to heal following last year’s referendum outcome.
“I am still hurting after the vote, which followed years of hard work by my people and promised a future of unity… that chapter is in the history books now, and Yolŋu choose to look to the future,” Yothu Yindi Foundation Chairman Djawa Yunupiŋu said.
Labor Government
This year will be Linda Burney’s last festival as the Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians, after she announced her resignation last week.
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, who will replace Burney, says this weekend will be about listening to communities that are “still dispirited [and] despondent”
”This weekend in Garma is going to be clearly important, to regather, reset and regroup with so many First Nations people across the country, but especially from around the Northern Territory,” McCarthy said.
Coalition
Both sides of parliament have historically attended the festival, but this year, no Coalition members will attend.
Organisers sent a personal invitation to Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton last week, to which he declined.
Dutton said the party remains committed to practical outcomes for Indigenous Australians.
“I want to make sure that women and children can live safely in our community, whether they’re in Indigenous remote communities, or if they’re in capital cities,” Dutton said.
