The giant black and white boards are of current and past Yolngu Elders who have played a significant role in the community. Pictured is the late Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra, who spent 78 years fighting for the freedom and justice of his people.
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Garma Festival 2025: A cultural exchange
Garma Festival is Australia’s largest annual Indigenous gathering, held on the lands of the Yolngu people in north-east Arnhem Land each August.
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This cultural gathering began 25 years ago when two Gumatj brothers met on the ceremonial grounds of Gulkulu, 30 minutes from Nhulunbuy, with an aim to celebrate their ancient culture and educate others of its importance.
What started as a small community gathering of clan leaders, where Balanda (white people) were invited to witness sacred bunggul (song and dance), has grown to become an internationally recognised festival showcasing the oldest continuous living culture on Earth, dating back more than 60,000 years.
Garma translates to a process of ‘‘two-way learning’’ and Garma Festival aims to bring together Indigenous and non-Indigenous people for a respectful and welcoming cultural exchange of celebration and important conversations.
Almost 3000 people attended Garma 2025, which welcomed Yolngu families from across north-east Arnhem Land, Indigenous and non-Indigenous people from across Australia and international guests, including traditional Native American dancers who shared the bunggul stage.
The tent cities of Garma, included in the cost of a festival ticket, house Yolngu families, corporate representatives from some of the country’s largest companies, volunteers from across Australia, media representatives, school groups and members of the public — all eager for a front-row seat to witness a cultural experience second to none in Australia.
Known as the birthplace of Indigenous land rights in Australia via the delivery of bark petitions to federal parliament in 1963 from nearby Yirrkala, north-east Arnhem Land has a long and proud history of agitation and activism.
Music has long been at the forefront of this activism and the Nhulunbuy region is home to Australian music royalty Yothu Yindi, who headlined this year’s festival alongside Emily Wurramarra, Xavier Rudd and up-and-coming Yolngu outfit Wild Honey.
Clan groups from Indigenous Homelands across Arnhem Land bring their own unique stories to the bunggul (music and dance) each day at Garma.
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Garma is also a platform for activism, which comfortably sits alongside a proud array of world-class artistic and creative talent.
Yothu Yindi Foundation chief executive Denise Bowden had a clear message in her welcome and introduction at the festival’s Key Forum.
She urged visitors to soak up the colourful and creative Yolngu culture on display at Garma where two worlds have been coming together for 25 years, but to “not be fooled by appearances”.
‘’Despite the success that you see around you here during your short stay on Gumatj Country, you will leave behind a world that remains in crisis,” she said in an interview with the ABC.
Ms Bowden described the Gumatju people as some of the “most marginalised in the country and the world”.
She urged visitors to Garma to not accept the status quo when it came to ‘‘closing the gap’’ and that the survival of the Yolngu people depended on significant reform and systemic change.
There are no easy answers to many of the issues that face the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land, who have always agitated for change and equality.
And, as much as Garma is a festival of song and dance, creativity and culture, it is also an important chance to sit and listen and learn from the people about what is needed to ensure this ancient culture — the oldest in the world — endures.
