As tents come down on the red escarpment at Gulkula and visitors leave the bush airstrip, Indigenous leaders depart northeast Arnhem Land with a clear message: the next 50 years of Australia's story must be written on Aboriginal terms.
The 2026 Garma Festival - the 26th on Yolngu land - has doubled as a summit on the future of land rights, the looming end of large‑scale mining at Gove and how one of the world's oldest continuous cultures wants to be seen by the rest of the planet.
