Garma Festival

The forum commenced with all participants taking part in a game which involved interaction and resulted in forming groups of 5-10 people from different communities.

Throughout the morning the groups were asked a number of questions about their communities which were discussed within the groups and then reported to the forum. The following statement is a short summary of some of the questions and an overview of the answers that the children gave.

Firstly they were asked about the aspects that they like about their communities. The main answers were:

Music
Dancing
Helping older people
Fishing
School
Sport

They were then asked to discuss the reasons why they enjoyed the activities and who the organisers were.

The second half of the discussion was based upon aspects of their community that they thought were 'not so good'.

These included:

Drugs
Alcohol
Petrol sniffing
Domestic violence
Fighting
No money for sport
No hunting
Swearing when drunk
Youth not respecting elders or listening to parents
Stealing
Shifting the blame of crimes to other people

Finally the students suggested solutions to these problems:

Forming community youth groups
Sharing money equally within the community
Education and funding for programs
Cooperation and working with the police
Having greater input from elders in the community
Increasing employment and activities

It is hoped that in the light of these discussions changes can occur within the communities with further involve the Yolngu youth.