Garma Festival

The 8th Garma Festival of Traditional Culture is the venue for a leading three-day Key Forum co-ordinated by Charles Darwin University on 5–7 August.

Are we doing enough given the size of the challenge? The dollars, problems, paradoxes and solutions in Indigenous Education and Training
Are current policies and programs working? Are they accessible?
Are they resourced and linked properly? Are governments working together?
Have we learnt from mistakes and successes?
Learning and earning — pathways to opportunities for meaningful Indigenous livelihoods in remote communities and meeting skill shortages
Learning for life — why traditional education and training are important

The annual Garma Festival of Traditional Culture is hosted by Yolgnu clans, on Aboriginal land at Gulkula, north-east Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. Organised by the Yothu Yindi Foundation, the Garma Festival is Australia’s most significant Indigenous cultural exchange event.

The Key Forum — with workshops, presentations, panel discussions and learning exchanges — will focus on past and present education policy and practice to examine ways to build non-Indigenous and Indigenous capacities to learn together, celebrating what works and how success can be adapted to other contexts.

The 2006 Key Forum will also pay special attention to work-readiness and on-the-job training programs. Indigenous unemployment rates appear to be intractable, but advances are being made in several industries. The Indigenous art industry and mining are two areas where livelihood and career opportunities are increasing.

The Key Forum registration fee of $1045 (*students $715) including GST, covers all meals, on-site camping accommodation, permits, Gove airport transfers, participation in special cultural sessions and activities for Key Forum participants, and attendance at the five days of the Garma Festival 4–8 August, including the famous nightly bu\gul (dance ceremony).

Places in the Key Forum are limited and priority will be given to participants with specific or professional qualifications, expertise or interest in the Key Forum. People working or studying, training or academically involved are invited to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to attend.

*student registration is available to students enrolled in recognised Indigenous studies subjects, courses or programs at colleges or universities. You will need to provide details of your course in the EOI

With its unique five-day line-up of entertainment, education and real cultural interaction, the Garma Festival of Traditional Culture is a spectacular celebration of cultural traditions and practices, and an award-winning model for insightful cultural tourism.

‘Garma’ means ‘both ways learning’ and is also used to describe the pioneering work of Yolgnu in ‘bothways school education’.

The Key Forum is now a major gathering of Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators, policy makers, academics, students, trainers, cultural practitioners and government, corporate and community leaders. The Key Forum makes a difference. It proposes new futures. It fosters leadership. It presents, discusses, and stimulates, analyses and progresses ideas, policies, practice and research of vital interest to Indigenous Australians and their social, cultural and economic well-being.

Past Key Forum themes have included Law, Health, Art, Environment, Livelihoods and Leadership, and, in 2005, Indigenous Cultural Livelihoods.

The Yothu Yindi Foundation is a not-for-profit Aboriginal charitable organisation with full tax exemption and gift deductibility status. All revenues, including Garma attendance fees received by the Foundation go to the operation of its projects and programs, including Garma, to achieve real, positive cultural, educational and economic outcomes.

The Yothu Yindi Foundation, through Garma and its other programs, has three primary aims:

creating economic opportunities for Yolgnu through education, training, employment and enterprise development;
nurturing and maintaining traditional cultural practices; and
sharing of knowledge and culture, thereby fostering greater understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

We are seeking your assistance in promoting participation in the Key Forum and Festival and hope you can join us for this vital 2006 event.

You can download this information as a PDF (2p 55kb)

Complete an Expression of Interest to attend Garma 2006.