Garma Festival

The Garma opening will be held on the afternoon of Friday August 6th. The Forum begins on the morning of Saturday 7th August and runs through to the afternoon of Monday 9th

There are a number of streams running through the program, principally:

Innovations in approaches to Indigenous livelihoods: hybrid economies combining market, public sector and customary relations, Indigenous community credit and finance schemes, community employment and enterprise, Indigenous entrepreneurship and partnerships
Arts and culture: ANKAAA executive and artists involved in planning an active program of seminars and workshops covering issues of role of art centres in employment and income generation, protecting artists rights and art centre management and funding issues
Tourism: workshops with John Morse and Paul Ah Chee, Aboriginal Tourism Australia and discussion with industry leaders, Indigenous tourism models, existing best practice and aspirations
Public sector: public sector Indigenous employment, intergovernmental cooperation in service delivery (COAG trial sites), welfare delivery and models, interface with communities
Mining: employment of Indigenous people in the mining sector, impact on communities
Rural/pastoral/primary industries: new models for managing Indigenous pastoral leases from Cape york to the Kimberley
Land and resource management: the essential role of Indigenous land managers in Caring for Country, controlling fuel load, managing invasive plant and animal species, maintining wildlife and habitat, Caring for Country as a culturally relevant employment sphere

Also running at Garma are the:

Indigenous music symposium: Yolngu songmen opening up the theme of calico (flags) and the associated stories and law related to long-standing trade relations with Macassan fishermen
Leaders and leadership forum: Indigenous leaders meet with government, public sector and corporate leaders to discuss issues of shared concern including: leadership within communities and between them, from local Indigenous leadership models to national representation, leadership training and mentorship, strengthening governance through leadership.

For all Forum programming enquiries please contact forum coordinator Peter Phipps: peter.phipps@rmit.edu.au
For registration and general Garma enquiries contact: garmafest@bigpond.com

For further reading and background papers on these issues see the CAEPR website working papers at http://www.anu.edu.au/caepr/working.php