“Garma” in Yolngu worldview is a public ceremony embodying the meeting of fresh and saltwater. The place where the waters meet is significant: it is a rich environment where life and ideas can thrive. Yolngu say Garma strives for balance between competing ideas, to find a future that is better than the past.
When the festival began in 1999 at Gulkula in north-east Arnhem land it was a small gathering, the vision of the late Gumatj leader Yunupingu and the Yothu Yindi Foundation. Garma was to be a place where balanda (whitefellas) and Yolngu could come together and discuss, debate and create new pathways.
