Garma Festival

The Garma Workshop was attended by Yolngu elders and community members, architects, educators, staff, and other supporters of the Foundation, as Andrew McMillan reports.

Standing amidst the stringy barks on the escarpment at Dhupuma (Gulkula) you can gaze out over the umbrella trees, vines and palms in the rainforest below; out across plains woven with streams fringed with mangroves, great stands of banyan trees in their freshwater reaches, and further on, to pandanus and sandhills and the indigo waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria, white foam erupting over the off-shore reefs.

This vantage point is the site that's been chosen for the Garma Cultural Studies Institute.

A place of great significance to Yolngu people, it is land central to law and lore associated with the sea eagle, fruitbat, kangaroo, bandicoot, Garma, possum, spider, yidaki, fog, mist, yam, log coffin, night bird, honey eater and sand goanna.

Initial planning for the development of the Garma Cultural Studies Institute at Dhupuma took the form of an on-site workshop held over 4 days in mid July.

At its conclusion chairman Galarrwuy Yunupingu announced that a five day cultural festival / workshop would be held at Dhupuma each July at the conclusion of NAIDOC Week to facilitate further cultural exchange, opening visitors to deeper aspects of Yolngu culture.

In the days prior to the 1998 workshop the Gumatj Association in association with the Community Development Education Program (CDEP) prepared the site erecting extensive shade structures for kitchen and meeting areas, establishing bush shower and toilet facilities and preparing campsites along the escarpment.

A Garma structure, traditionally used in mortuary ceremony, was built on cleared ground laid with sand for late afternoon ceremonies conducted by Gumatj and Rirratjingu dancers, singers and songmen.

A six-metre representation of the sugarbag hunter Ganbulabula was also erected on the site as a reminder of the importance of this place in the process of reconciliation. The appropriate tree was picked, felled, shaved and shaped by Gumatj elder Galarrwuy Yunupingu.

Camped atop the escarpment, four architects bidding for the commission to design the Institute - Greg Burgess, Sue Dugdale, Greg Norman & Sue Harper - and other guests were briefed in sessions chaired by Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Mandawuy Yunupingu in conjunction with other elders.
In his opening address, Galarrwuy explained that "the knowledge is here, ready to be shared."

Predicting that "all of eastern Arnhem Land will be affected by this centre", Galarrwuy expressed his hope that the Institute would be a forum for the exchange of deep Yolngu and Balanda (western) academic knowledge.

In consultation with traditional landowners it was decided that the Garma Cultural Studies Institute's administration block would be built on the site of the old Dhupuma College at the gateway to Gulkula. (Dhupuma College was established by the Federal Government in 1972 as a boarding institution for Yolngu students in Arnhem Land. The college, which produced most of the nurses, teachers and other Yolngu professionals presently working in Yirrkala, was shut down by the Northern Territory government in 1981).

It was decided that separate sites would be established for accommodation, environmental studies, music, the arts and healing as well as an information centre and ranger headquarters for land and sea management in the region.

The sites will be within walking distance of the Centre, joined by discreet paths like the dhum dhum (kangaroo) tracks that edge the escarpment.

Rock singer and former school principal Mandawuy Yunupingu envisages Garma as a "centre of excellence".

As a result of extensive community consultation, one of Mandawuy's former teachers Greg Wearne (Centre for Indigenous & Cultural Resource Management at NTU in Darwin) drew up a list of the long term objectives for the Garma Cultural Studies Institute.

It is envisaged that the Institute will incorporate vocational & education training programs for Yolngu youth (including those living in homelands centres); higher education workshops as part of formal degree courses; workshops for academics from Australia and overseas; the development of culturally relevant curriculum packages at all levels including formal components of higher education courses; cultural recovery programs for urban indigenous people; cultural and eco tourism courses and opportunities; cross cultural education and training programs for teachers, health workers, police aides, rangers, local government and others working with Aboriginal communities; a place to record, archive and store cultural knowledge and intellectual property; a place to conduct collaborative research projects; reconciliation workshops (local and beyond); and cross cultural awareness workshops.

It is envisaged that mobile facilities for recording of traditional manikay (song), oral histories and other activities will visit homelands centres in the bush, thereby expanding the immediate regional web for both learning and teaching.

On a local level the Institute will provide a solid cultural education for Yolngu young people instilling in them a strong appreciation of ceremony, dancing, relationships and cultural discipline as well as a culturally appropriate secondary education for students in homeland centres.

In a region increasingly exposed to Balanda culture, elders hope the Centre will provide a sense of direction in life, encouraging the younger community to respect life as a whole, ensuring that, in Galarrwuy's words, "there is time for hunting and learning, there is time for enjoying and sharing, and there is time for mourning and crying, and all those things are being carried out with respect. We want to put a resource, a Centre here to do that...and maybe they'll grow up to be good men and women."

A workshop conducted by women representing the Yarrwidi-Gumatj, Gupa-Gumatj, Rirratjingu, Djapu, Wangurri and Warramiri clans signaled the need for a spiritual and physical Healing Centre with separate men's and women's areas and a common room under one roof.

In a meeting chaired by Ngalawurr Mununggurr, Gurruwun Yalmay Marika Yunupingu and Marmburra Banduk Marika — the women identified their roles and responsibilities within the Garma Cultural Studies Institute as working and consulting with elders (Bamanpuy Rom); practicing bush medicine; fostering Miny'tji (Art & Copyright); promoting Yolngu ngatha ga Rom (law regarding traditional food practices); practicing Raypirri Rom (Yolngu spiritual healing law); restoring discipline as practiced prior to colonisation in 1935; recording old people's knowledge on spiritual & physical discipline; encouraging recognition of Yolngu academics; and promoting employment for Yolngu people.

Towards sunset on the first and second days of the Garma workshop, senior songmen with yidaki (didjeridu) and bilma (clap sticks) called dancers painted up with gapan (white clay) to the meeting place for ceremony.

Brandishing his iron wood bilma, Galarrwuy explained that while the ELDO space station had cleared the land a bare 25 years after the arrival of Methodist missionaries, the land had regenerated such that "when I clap my bilma the trees dance."

The Garma ceremonies, danced and sung by men and women of the various clans, were performed to reawaken the land and the spirit of Ganbulabula.

It was the first time younger members of the community had been exposed to, and instructed in, the song and dance of Garma bunggul; the first time in many years that Balanda guests have been invited to witness, and learn about, this aspect of Yolngu culture.

As such it was both a symbolic and practical launch for the Garma Cultural Studies Institute