Garma Festival

The bunggul tonight was begun by the Gumatj people, the owners of the land at Gulkula. Here are some short quotes from Mandawuy’s commentary on what the series of dances and songs represented: ‘Tonight’s dance is directly related to the hero ancestor of this land, Ganbulapula. Everything you see in the dancing has a spiritual as well as a physical side to it, and is from the same story which you can see in our bark paintings. Ganbulapula comes through the forest, looking for yams, and pulling at their long stems. All the spirit people are gathering around the hollow log coffin, crying for the deceased. They use the long bones of the Yirritja kangaroo, hitting the sides of their head to draw blood in their grief. In our ceremonies the human lifeblood is valued at the highest spiritual level. Soon, the blood becomes the sunset and all the dancers turn and face west towards the setting sun. The white cockatoos are flying from tree to tree, with the spirits, in the stringybark forest of the Gulkula area. They see the body of the deceased held in the rafters of the bush shelter. The dance of the cockatoos helps us to reflect on the living environment as well as the life of the deceased and the importance of the respect we show them. Then comes the dawn and a dingo comes through the mist heading down towards the beach. These things are all part of our spiritual connections to our ancestors and to our land.’

From Prof Marcia Langton
Twenty one students from a range of disciplines at the University of Melbourne attended the 2001 Garma Festival as a part of the fieldwork component of a new unit in the School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies. Garma Fieldwork (121-046), was designed in response to the Maak presented to the Australian Vice Chancellors’ Committee two years ago when the Yothu Yindi Foundation initiated a series of steps that Universities could follow to respect and formalise Yolngu and other Indigenous knowledge systems. Since their arrival on Friday 17 August, the students have worked with Yolngu and other organisations, such as the Miwatj Legal Service, the Miwatj Health Service, Buku Larrngay Mulka Arts Centre, Dhimurru Land Corporation, the Yirrkala Community Education Centre, and the Northern Land Council. The students attended the bungul on Tuesday evening involving Gumatj and Madarrpa clan members, followed in the evening by a campfire get together with Yolngu women. On Wednesday, Day 2 of the Garma Festival, some students visited Nanydjaka with the Dhimurru rangers while others accompanied women on their walks to collect guku, or honey, and on Wednesday afternoon, Juanita, a law student and Caroline, a graduate law student in Development Studies, assisted the Steering Committee for the Ngaarra Legal Forum which will begin tomorrow.

From Sophie, one of the students
Participating in Garma as an undergraduate student, has been one of the moments in my life where my consciousness and body have combined with an "other" to create an awareness that is not easy for me to talk about or define. It results from learning, thinking and being, but it is also about respect and place and acknowledgement.

The Gulkula is a living place. The Yolngu, the Yirritja and the Dhuwa are giving, gracious and honorable teachers. By being here learning, listening, and so participating in contemporary Yolngu culture, I see that the Yolngu vision for the future is one that does not compromise Yolngu history. Yet there are many compromises which are made so my understanding of Garma can be created.

Instead of trying to tell you "what" Garma is, I will share "who" Garma is, because it is something I can define. Garma is everyone here, and so it is me. Garma is being reminded of all the things I can, and do, represent and so all the things I am. It is being reminded of what could be so easily ignored. It is about more than social justice or change – it is about creating an ideological shift. Garma is many metaphors, in my basic Balanda, for many things.

Being on Yolngu land with Yolngu people, is teaching me more than I can say. It is a shadow in my consciousness that I am chasing and feel like I will never catch. The shadows grow longer the more time I spend here, as I realise how little I can see.
Here it is really learning by listening, learning by participation, learning by living,

Garma is here and now, and its only day two.

From Raymattja

Today Raymattja, a well known senior Rirratjingu educator and linguist gave a perspective on Garma, and on her language. Here are some quotes from what she had to say:

"Garma is a setting. For example the garma at Gulkula is a place where things happened at the beginning. That area is a yati or a garma, a meeting place, a place for ceremonies for the ancestral creator of the Yirritja. It’s for Ganbulapula, his place, for his people. The people who sing about Ganbulapula are all the Yirritja clan groups like Dhalwangu, Gumatj, Lamami, Wangurri, Manggalili. The same happened here at Yirrkala, there’s a Dhuwa garma place at Yamuna, at Nuwul, the djarrak, tern dreaming site. The meeting place of the Dhuwa clans in the dream time, exchanging the merri strings between Djambarrpuyngu and Rirratjingu and other Dhuwa clans like Bararrngu, Gamalangga, Malarra, and Djambarrpuyngu. This is where negotiation happened, where a formal agreement took place between the clans, to divide the two clans. In our conceptual thinking, it’s a place where formal talks take place, and formal events like initiation ceremonies, and the log coffin ceremony. A place of gathering, talking, negotiating. It’s a forum. I’m Raymattja, I’m a Rirratjingu person, I’m one yolngu, one person, but I have many connections, to my mother’s side, (my ngandipulu) and my waku side (my children), and to my grandmothers. The yolngu person is not alone. The Yolngu person is connected to all these different clans, through the mother, and the mother’s mother, and the mother’s mother’s mother, that’s the waku, and the mother’s mother’s mother’s mother, that’s the yapapulu, that’s the maternal line. And then I’m connected through my father’s line. That’s the Rirratjingu line.

I spoke Dhuwaya when I was growing up, that’s the lingua franca. Then half way through I changed my language, my developmental thinking changed because I spoke in Dhangu (Rirratjingu) and when I speak in Dhangu now I see it is a language of intelligence through its link to my djalkiri wanga, my homeland, my sacred land, the law, the songlines, the stories. I can understand the world that I come from in much more depth. The dhangu language which I speak now has reaffirmed my identity. When I spoke Dhuwaya, I was more like a child, thinking in a narrow world view."

Raymattja went on to record a short story in Rirratjingu about herself and her background for students of Yolngu languages to transcribe and translate.

Music Workshops at the Yothu Yindi Foundations Yirrnga Music Studio
During Garma there are music workshops for young up and coming bands at the Yirrnga studio. Below is the Shadow Band from Maningrida. More pics and sounds coming soon.