Garma Festival

beazley Opposition leader, Kim Beazley, arrived today at the Garma 2000 festival at Gulkula. Mr. Beazley met with the traditional landowners at the site and reinforced his position on Native Title legislation. He was taken on a tour of the Garma site, and was a guest at the Yolngu bunggal.

Mr Beazley criticised the Northern Territory and Western Australian governments for not acting in the interests of the Indigenous people in those states, adding that legislation would only be passed with consent of the aboriginal people under a Labor government.

Mr. Beazley also apologized on behalf of Bob McMullan, newly appointed Shadow Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Reconciliation, and the Arts, who was unable to attend the festival.

Yolngu elder, Galarrwuy Yunupingu, said he was happy with the outcome of Mr. Beazley's visit.

Yirrkala School

The bi-lingual aboriginal school at Yirrkala held their Open Day today. Visitors to the Garma festival were given the opportunity to see the schools Indigenous education program at work.

With 150 primary and secondary students enrolled from the surrounding community, the focus at the school is to provide a balanced education, combining both Indigenous and English learning. The Yirrkala School has an equal weighting of committed Yolngu and "Balanda" (white) teaching staff.

School principle, Leon White, explained that the scarcity of school reading books in the aboriginal language had prompted the creation of a desktop publishing facility. Located on site, teachers and support staff are actively involved in the printing and cataloguing of these essential learning materials.

The hope is to establish a full resource network through the Internet, where other community schools can access a cultural database of these materials and archives.

Prompted by a concern in school attendances, a student project was recently undertaken to analyse the issue. It was found that of the 63 teenagers in Yirrkala and surrounding communities, only 21 were enrolled in the school.

The compelling factor in poor attendance rates is the excessive distances students must travel to obtain their education. The highest level obtained by a student at the school is Year 10.

school The level of funding to support the mixed curriculum of the school is a major constraint. As government funding is purely based on the number of students enrolled, there is a constant financial pressure on the school in providing their joint learning approach. Buildings associated with a satellite-tracking project from the 1960's, are being used as school classrooms.

It was an uplifting sight during recess to see both Yolngu and Balanda students sitting in the schoolyard, taking turns playing the yidaki. Such is the aim of the Yirrkala school.

Spear-making Workshop

A "Men's Business" workshop has been conducted by the Yolngu over the last two days, teaching the traditional practice of spear making, led by expert spear-maker, Murphy Yunupingu.

The Yolngu has primarily used spears for fishing purposes. Located by the sea with their amazing ability to fish, the Yolngu are often referred to as the "Saltwater People".

Murphy took Garma guests into the native bush around Gulkula in search of the Milkwood tree. The long slender trunk of this tree is ideally weighted for throwing.

A patch of Milkwood is located in thick undergrowth, and Murphy and the Yolngu guides cut them down with hatchets. The branches are trimmed from the trunk, leaving a straight length of three metres. The wood appears too flexible to withstand the demands of spear fishing in the sea.

Once back at camp, the bark is stripped from the trunk and the white wood is placed over fire to be heated. The heat generated in the wood makes it more pliable, allowing the Yolngu to straighten out any bending in the spear shaft.

After allowing the shaft to cool, the outer layer is chipped away revealing a sticky layer of sap, which is removed to add strength to the spear. Traditionally it would be left to dry and harden naturally in the sun for a couple of days.

The ironwood tree is generally used by the Yolngu to form the spear-head. A sharp triangular shape is carved out and attached to a groove slotted into the head of the shaft. On this occasion, due to our time restriction, thin metal rods were sharpened to a point as a handy substitute.

Three of the sharpened rods are heated over hot coals and rammed into the groove we have made in our spear shaft. As the rods cool, they expand and are held affixed to the shaft. Murphy explains how a common vine plant used by the women in their weaving, is bound around the spear-head and shaft to ensure their durability.

Andrew Farriss, producer of the Yothu Yindi Garma album, earned the respect and envy of the camp when he speared a small shark in his first attempt at using the spear he worked so hard on.