Garma Festival

The Garma Cultural Festival, known in English Garma Festival of Traditional Culture or short Garma Festival and of the Yolngu Matha in their language Garma'wu Buku luŋgthurra, is an event over a period of five days, the Yothu Yindi Foundation, which organized. The non-profit organization was founded by Aboriginal rock band Yothu Yindi - to preserve the culture and traditions of the Yolngu. The cultural festival has won several awards.

The festival is held annually since 1999 in early August on a square instead, the Gulkula is called. The festival place in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia located on a forest of Eucalyptus tetrodonta with a view of the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is located on the Gove Peninsula, 40 kilometers from the mining town of Nhulunbuy and 14 kilometers southeast from Gove Airfield away. At this place the beings of creation Ganbulabula is in the presentation of the Yolngu created from the Dreamtime the didgeridoo and have passed the clan of the Gumatj.

The festival is primarily a cultural celebration of Yolngu Aboriginal ceremonies on the ( Wangga ) organizes, Singing ( manikay ) and dance ( Bunggul ) are presented. It will be presented or also created works of art of the Aborigines. In 2006, there painted images in a workshop for example the painter Gulumbu Yunupingu. The festival also aims to develop the cultural and economic revitalization of the remote area and that the foreign visitors have experiences with the indigenous culture.

The Yolngu came relatively late to the British colonization in the mid-1930s in contact and were therefore able to maintain their traditions and maintain. When they were not consulted in the 1960s before the construction of the Gove bauxite mine, they campaigned for their land rights. The festival in 2013 is particularly the 50th anniversary of the presentation of the Yolngu Bark dedicated to petition the Australian parliament.

The former petition was the first verschriftlichte expression of the land rights movement of Indigenous people of Australia. She was bilingual and was handed over in 1963. It was rejected and the Yolngu then lost in court. The mine operators are volunteers, paid compensations to the Yolngu and secured the protection of its historically significant places to. In the early years of the Garma Cultural Festival, it was more political. The organizer of the festival, the eminent Elder Galarrwuy Yunupingu, called for a stronger and contractually secured participation in the profits of the bauxite mine on their traditional lands. Otherwise, he announced that the Yolngu will build our own mine. He had achieved his goal, as in May 2011, an agreement between the Rirratjingu, Gumatj and Galpu Traditional Owners, Northern Land Council and the mining company Rio Tinto Alcan over more 42 years in mining operations could be closed until 2053.

At the festival in 2013 political perspectives and cultural activities of the regional Aboriginal will be discussed. The Elder from eastern Arnhem Land come together to discuss their common path into the future.

Visitor numbers rose constantly. In recent years, up to 3000 participants were counted. While in the early years were only invited guests and scientists move to the feast, you can sign up free of charge in the meantime.

Accessible is the remote area on aircraft departing in Cairns or Darwin with all-wheel drive vehicles on the Stuart Highway and the 700 -kilometer-long dirt track until after Bulman Nhulunbuy. The track is to be used only with permission.

Awards

The Garma Cultural Festival in 2004 and 2005, awarded by the Government of the Northern Territory with the Brolga Award and won the 2005 Skal International Ecotourism Award.