The stage is set for the nation's biggest celebration of Yolngu culture.
The 23rd annual Garma Festival will take place from August 4 to 7 at Gulkula, 31 kilometres from Nhulunbuy in Northern Territory's northeast Arnhem Land.
Each year, the festival draws a bigger and bigger crowd. With the Prime Minister and politicians, academics, legal experts, business people, education and health advocates, and foreign delegates, some of those in attendance.
But, this year, Garma will be different.
Bungul (dance) circle is a key highlight of the Garma Festival. Source: AAP
The first Garma
In early April, the revered Yolngu Elder and leader of the Gumatji clan, Yunupingu passed away after a long battle with illness.
The 74-year-old dedicated his life to the land rights movement and the self-determination of his people.
Garma Festival was a creation of Yunupingu and his late brother Dr M Yunupingu, the frontman of .
Garma, itself, is a Yolngu Matha term for "two-way learning process".
The pair led the first Garma Festival in 1999, a small gathering intended to gather Yolngu to talk about self-determination, well-being and health.
It was hosted by the Yothu Yindi Foundation, which was established almost a decade earlier to represent the five regional clans in Arnhem Land: the Gumatji, Rirratingu, Djapu, Galpu and Wangurri.
The significance of Gulkula
The very first Garma was hosted at the Gulkula site on Gumatj Country, a tradition that has remained.
Gulkula site is a significant place of ceremony for Gumatji, and a meeting place for the five clans. Yolngu history describes how people have danced at the ceremonial grounds 'from the beginning'.
Gulkula is home to a stringybark forest that looks out over the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Some of the forest was bulldozed in 1964 by the Department of Works for the Gove Down Range and Guidance Telemetry Station. The station tracked the path of rockets launched from Woomera in South Australia.
The Gulkula site, where thousands of campers descend for the Garma Festival. Credit: yyf.com.au
In 2017, under the influence of the Land Rights Act, the Northern Land Council (NLC) approved a lease over Gumatji land near Gulkula for the operation of a sub-orbital rocket launch facility.
Yunupingu's legacy
This will be the first Garma Festival without Yunupingu. On Friday, to mark the beginning of the festival, there will be a memorial for him.
Garma is just one part of the giant's legacy.
In a statement issued on the day of his passing, Yunupingu's daughter Binmila Yunupingu acknowledged that there would never be "another like him".
"We remember him for his fierce leadership, and total strength for Yolngu and for Aboriginal people throughout Australia. He lived by our laws always," she wrote.
"Our father was driven by a vision for the future of this nation, his people’s place in the nation and the rightful place for Aboriginal people everywhere.
"In leaving us, we know that Dad’s loss will be felt in many hearts and minds. We ask you to mourn his passing in your own way, but we as a family encourage you to rejoice in the gift of his life and leadership."
Yunupingu's family and his daughter Binmila Yunupingu addressing the memorial ceremony in May. Credit: Peter Eve
When he was only 15, he watched the Australian Government award mining rights to Nabalco after bauxite was found on the Gove Peninsula. Yolngu people were never consulted.
Yunupingu helped his father and uncle draft the famous , which are now recognised as the founding documents of the Aboriginal land rights movement.
Written in Yolngu Matha and English, the petitions championed Aboriginal connection and ownership of Country. They became the first traditional documents recognised by the Australian Parliament and the very first recognition of Indigenous people in Australian law.
Yunupingu was an interpreter for the landmark 'Gove Land Rights' case against Nabalco in the Northern Territory Supreme Court. It was the first case in history that argued Native Title.
One of the historic Yirrkala Bark Petitions.
This paved the way for the passing of the Northern Territory Land Rights Act in 1976. It was the first attempt of the Commonwealth government to formally recognise in law, Aboriginal ownership of Country.
In 1977, Yunupingu was elected as the inaugural chairman of the NLC and in 1978 he was awarded Australian of the Year.
“We are at last being recognised as the Indigenous people of this country who must share in its future," he said in his acceptance speech.
A decade later, he co-signed the Barunga Statement which called for Aboriginal self-determination, a national system of land rights and an end to racial discrimination.
The Statement was presented to the then Prime Minister Bob Hawke at the Barunga Sport and Cultural Festival on Jawoyn Country in the NT.
Hawke co-signed the Statement and set 1990 as the deadline for the establishment of a Treaty.
From 1991 and 1996, Yunupingu was a member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, which later became Reconciliation Australia.
In 2004, Yunupingu resigned from the NLC having served as chair from 1977 to 1980 and again from 1983 and 2004. He served eight terms over almost a quarter of a decade.
Yunupingu's advocacy on the referendum
Yunupingu was a staunch advocate for the Uluru Statement from the Heart. He was a member of the Referendum Working Group and the Indigenous co-design Advisory Group established by former minister Ken Wyatt.
At Garma in 2022, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese put forth the draft question for the incoming referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament alongside three sentences to amend the Constitution.
This year's Garma Festival will focus on the referendum.
Speaking after his passing, Minster for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney said she would dedicate a successful Voice campaign to Yunupingu.
“It is hard to put into words what this loss means for this country. It is hard to imagine the next Garma Festival, without Yunupingu. It is hard to imagine going forward for many people,” she said.
“But his legacy, his inspiration, will live on.”
Alongside NT Senator Malarndirri McCarthy and Member for Lingiari Marion Scrymgour, Minister Burney said the nation has an opportunity to "gift" the giant a successful referendum.
They remembered his words, that the "future is our responsibility".
