Photo Stephen Cherry

Photo Stephen Cherry

Photo Andrea Keningston

Photo Andrea Keningston

Saturday night bunggul

Tonight the Buyula’mirri people, the Gupapuy\u who are represented here at garma opened the bunggul with the manbirri, catfish dance. The Murayana people were As is customary, each night as the garma progresses they may add more dances and songs filling out the details of the story which they are gradually elaborating. Then they danced galangarr, then dakuwa the prawn. The bones from these will become important for the rest of the story. Then, like last night they danced gurrutjutju the hawk, then marrngu the possum, then biyay’ the yirritja goanna and lorrpu the white cockatoo. The dances again brought together the two groups who both speak Dhuwala’mirri languages. The Gupapuyngu people presented in their bunggul, a dhona, or digging stick which was a sign of working together, and renewed an old covenant between the Buyala’mirri Gupapuyngu and the Yunupingu, Burarrwanga and Mununggiritj groups of Gumatj people.

Then Djalalingba, senior Gumatj elder from Yunupingu side, and Galitju rom the Burarrwanga side, led the Gumatj yothu yindi into the garma with the dance of Ganbulapula, the Gumatj equivalent of Murayana. Ganbulapula waslooking for honey, dancing through the stringy bark forest. Other totems they dance were duynga the yam, bilitjpilitj the red winged parrot, wurrpan the emu, ngerrk the white cockatoo, and wakulunggul, the spider weaving its web. The white stripe across their foreheads and the yellow ochre across their faces indicated that they were from the land at Gulkula.

After some time, some of the Gupapuyngu men and women joined the Gumatj yothu yindi in their dancing, everyone shouting with great excitement.

The climax of the bunggul came when the Nunggubuyu people from Numbulwar representing the Macassan boat arriving at the Rose River area south of Gulkula. They danced many Macassan themes including flag, telescope, gambling with cards. At the end of the evening’s dancing many of the Gumatj, Gupapuyngu yothu yindi joined in with the Nunggubuyu yothu yindi groups to everyone’s acclaim.

GARMA PANEL 2004

At Gulkula today, Yothu Yindi Foundation chair and respected Yolngu artist Galarrwuy Yunupingu launched the 2004 Garma Panel project.

It is envisaged that 48 indigenous artists will be involved in the creation of the panel. While most of the artists this year are Yolngu from east Arnhem Land, others have come from the Tiwi Islands, Fitzroy Crossing, Darwin and Sydney.

There being a strong tradition of wood carving in the east Arnhem region, this year’s project involves the creation of wood block prints.

The commissioned wood blocks are of MDF with Kauri pine ply on either side. The artists have been provided with tools for carving and once completed, ink will be rolled into the blocks, thin Japanese paper will be overlaid and barens used to apply pressure to the back of the paper. Hand printed proofs will then be available for the artists’ approval by the end of the festival.

It is envisaged that the completed project, with all prints joined together in a big panel, will be exhibited for the first time at Garma 2005.

Photo Stephen Cherry

Photo Stephen Cherry

BUSH TUCKER

Over the past couple of days, women visiting from Maningrida and Ramingining have joined with local ladies in gathering and preparing bush tucker from the Cape Arnhem region.

The visiting women were guided by a traditional owner of the area, Galitju Barrawanga, who performed a land recognition ceremony to protect the visitors and ensure the provision of food.

The women returned to Gulkula with local delicacies including mud mussels, oysters and turtle eggs.
Bush tucker collection and traditional cooking demonstrations will be staged throughout Garma.

For the women involved, most of whom work in aged care and health services in their communities, it’s an opportunity to demonstrate the nutritional benefits of bush foods and to share traditional skills from across east Arnhem Land.

Fire pits have been dug at Gulkula and the fires are being stoked as I write.

A men’s fishing party which visited Cape Armhem in tandem with the women’s group has returned to camp with crabs, stingrays, and local piscatorial pleasures like red emperor, whiting, mangrove jack, barramundi and jewfish.

A men’s hunting party, organized in conjunction with Dhimurru Land Management, has headed bush in search of kangaroos and emu for the ground ovens.

In the meantime, as the fire pits glow, Yolngu women are sitting in the sand, chatting and laughing as they prepare dampers (loaves of bush bread) for the coals.

Photo Andrea Keningston

Photo Andrea Keningston

Photo Andrea Keningston

Photo Trevor van Weeren

Photo Trevor van Weeren

Photo Trevor van Weeren

Yolngu Stories on Cultural Leadership

The key Garma Forum – Indigenous Livelihoods and Leadership - opened this morning with speeches from Galarrwuy and Mandawuy Yunupingu. A diverse group of people overflowed from under the Main Shelter and listened as the calm ocean was glimpsed through the tree limbs behind the men.

‘This is Garma again,’ Galarrwuy began, after an introduction in Yolngu matha. ‘Garma is now here to stay and I said simply in Gumatj, that we come here united in spirit and in the mind. That we hope to achieve something we have set out to achieve as one people.’ He related the possibility and feeling of place, saying, ‘there are no brick walls but simply a hut blending in with the bush with people walking around learning, studying, carrying on. Just being ordinary people both black and white building the future of Australia’s pride.’
He called on those present to create a true centre of Garma knowledge, sharing his dreams from the original Garma 6 years ago to how it could grow in the future. A panel of community elders then took up the theme of Leadership and Livelihoods with their specific stories. They explained how leadership carried cultural responsibility to Yolngu and how it related to spirit and place through the kinship system.

The Yambirrpa story at Yirrkala before the church Mission arrived, was told by Laklak Yunupingu through Raymattja Marika: ‘the building of the fish trap is done very carefully and everyone has to take part in it, so it’s carefully made and secure the same way as we’re doing this, to build something for the future, here at this Garma. Our ancestors Djang’kawu and Barama are the foundation for us to learn and follow that law and in these coming months we’re having the fish trap building again. With the children from the school we will re-establish this ancient practise, building this fishtrap.’

The crowd took in the concept, like the tides that came in and caught the fish behind the rock wall, that the idea of Garma is to build relationships with local, interstate and international networks, bringing people together to share, understand and advance culture.

Photo Andrea Keningston