Garma Festival of Traditional Cultures

Australia's largest annual Indigenous cultural gathering

The Garma Festival of Traditional Cultures (Garma) is Australia's largest Indigenous cultural gathering, taking place over four days each August in northeast Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory, Australia. Hosted by the Yothu Yindi Foundation, Garma is a celebration of the cultural traditions of the Yolngu people, and a major community gathering for the clans and families of the Arnhem Land region. The event showcases traditional miny'tji (art), ancient story telling, manikay (song), and bunggul (dance). It is held at Gulkula, a significant Gumatj ceremonial site about from the township of Nhulunbuy, attracts more than 2500 guests each year and is often sold out months in advance. In recent years, Garma has become an important fixture on the political calendar, attracting business, political, academic, and philanthropic leaders to help shape Indigenous affairs policy through the Key Forum conference.

The first Garma was held in 1999 and was little more than a backyard barbecue. Dhapanbal Yunupingu, the daughter of Dr M Yunupingu, said the first event was a small scale affair. "I remember when Galarrwuy and dad brought us here, and they were standing on the Bunggul ground, and they said: This is the Garma site, this is where the festival is going to be.' We were only little. Dad picked his camp. My uncles picked their camp. There were five white fellas who came. There were no tents, two cars, and a BBQ. Our chef slept next to the back of the ute in a swag".

At Garma 2017, the Gumatj Corporation entered into several historic agreements with the federal government and other parties. These included plans for the Gulkula Regional Training Centre, a township lease agreement for Gunyangara, and an agreement with Rio Tinto Alcan on bauxite sales for the Gulkula Mine project. This would be the first Indigenous owned and operated mining venture on traditional owner land. In addition, the Corporation discussed the potential hosting of a rocket launch site (see below).

Due to the COVID 19 pandemic the Garma festival was cancelled in 2020. The 2021 event was also cancelled, largely due to COVID 19 developments in Victoria, being a growing outbreak in late May. The NT Chief Health Officer decided the remoteness of the north east Arnhem Land location of the festival posed a public health risk if an outbreak occurred.

In 1964, many of the trees on the escarpment at Gulkula were bulldozed and then burnt by the Department of Works so the Gove Down Range Guidance and Telemetry Station could be built. At the time, the Yolngu owners had no rights in Australian law, and they were unable to prevent the European Launcher Development Organisation from installing a rocket tracking station on the ceremonial site. The purpose of the station was to track the path of rockets launched from Woomera in South Australia, and its state of the art technology was operated by mainly Belgian scientists. In September 2020, the original twenty tonne satellite tracker, which had been stored at Woomera for decades, was returned to the Gove Peninsula, to be restored and put on display at the Gove Airport headquarters of the Arnhemland Historical Society. The site is seen by NASA as a move from its previous preferred site for rocket launches in Australia at Woomera, which it has not used since 1995. The proximity of a deep water port is seen as an advantage, reducing the cost of transporting rockets and payloads, compared with road transport across the desert. In July 2019, scientists from NASA visited the site, funded by the Northern Territory Government and ELA. The facility is seen as a huge opportunity to boost the economy of the region, providing jobs and pathways for STEM graduates.