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Garma
Festival, 4-10 Setpember 2001
Ngaarra Legal Forum
Day 5
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Day 5
The
final bunggul of the Garma festival was a performance of the kangaroo
dance which this time included the spearing of the kangaroo.
Preparation for the final bunggul
The
final night concert was an electrifying performance. Bands that
had participated in the music workshops were given an opportunity
to perform on stage. Performances followed by Shelley Morris, a
guest performance by Nitin Sawhney, Jodi Cockatoo-Creed and finally
Yothu Yindi took the stage in front of an ecstatic home crowd. During
the performance of 'Fire' members of the Gopu football team, who
had just won the local Aussie rules grand final leapt on stage to
join the dancers in the crocodile dance. With such a supportive
home crowd Mandawuy and the other performers sang from the heart
and closed the festival on a high note.
Yolngu Language and Culture
Waymamba Gaykamangu and Michael Christie from the Faculty of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Northern Territory University
have been working in the Yolngu language and culture room, helping
people at the festival answering questions and providing notes on
pronunciation of Yolngu languages, kinship, land, and conversation,
and working with enrolled and unofficial students looking at the
new electronic materials produced at NTU.
There are seven Northern Territory University students of Yolngu
languages and culture at the Garma festival. Waymamba Gaykamangu
is their lecturer, and Michael Christie the coordinator. Several
of the students are studying Gupapuyngu (Waymamba’s language)
on line on a trial basis, pending approval from Yolngu advisers
to offer the course officially through the university. Yesterday
and today Waymamba met with Dr Marika, one of the Yolngu advisers
to the NTU program, to catch up with ideas and discuss the program.
The advisers are so far happy to approve the website and materials
we have produced to support the on line program, and talks will
continue until early next year when all students will hopefully
be able to enrol to study Yolngu languages and culture on line.
The language and culture room of the festival was next to the IT
room, and while secondary students from Yirrkala Community Education
Centre were learning to make videos and use iMovie, Michael took
the opportunity to learn to shoot and edit a video, and interviewed
Dr Marika and Waymamba together about their reactions to Garma 2001.
Dr Marika and Waymamba both recorded messages for the Yolngu studies
students in their own languages (Rirratjingu and Gupapuyngu), and
then added some comments in English.This is what Dr Marika had to
say:
"The starting point is the garma, but galtha may be taking
place in the different situations like the women’s forum, the
men’s forum and other areas, like the legal forum, it’s
an opportunity for people learn in both ways (djunama ga rali) opportunities
for yolngu to learn about balanda ideas like in the legal forum,
learning about the munanga rom, laws, ideas, and also for the munanga,
the nonAboriginal yolngu it’s a good opportunity for them to
learn about Yolngu understandings of law. It’s a good way of
meeting together, finding ideas together and helping each other,
and sharing together each other’s programs. It’s getting
better and better. More and more people are coming. Some maybe nyumukuniny
marnggi (know a little bit) some of them maybe gaining just a little
insight into the Yolnguworld view through understanding, looking
at manikay, or ceremonies, or dancing, it’s just a little glimpse.
For example in the yidaki masterclass they’re just learning
sounds, the next step for them is to learn to add the clapsticks,
and add the singing to the masterclass so they can learn to play
the yikadi with the beat of the bilma and sound of the manikay.
That’s the next step maybe next time. And another step next
year may be to add dancing, learning the dance steps, just quick
steps, to add to the masterclass. For me personally I felt good
learning new ideas, like in the law forum learning about balanda
ways of rom (law), where issues can be dealt with, in situations
were there are very knowledgeable people there with their expertise,
I found that very helpful, for my own issues that deal with my family
situation. I found it very helpful."
For most of
the Garma festival, senior women from Gumatj and other clan groups
gathered daily in the women’s shelter, sharing and teaching
their crafts, and observing the festival from the edge of the garma
area. OnSaturday, two of them talked to Trevor about the garma.
Here is a short summary of what they had to say (translated from
Gumatj):
All the yolngu used to come this area many years ago, Dhuwa and
Yirritja. What did they carry? Cycad bread, lily corms, and yams.
Food for both men and women. For Dhuwa and Yirritja. For sharing.
And that law will still stand for ever, for both the new generations
of Yolngu and for any balanda who want to come here as well.
Yes, this was always a place of sharing. But also don’t forget
there was the hollow log, the Yirritja larrakitj standing here for
storing the remains of the deceased. When people died their bodies
would be wrapped in paperbark, and left for many nights, until after
a month, and the people would say, come on, I think it’s ready
and they would go together and take it and prepare the bones. And
meanwhile the elders had already been carefully preparing the larrakitj,
painting the ancestral totemic designs on it. And the bones would
be prepared and put into the hollow log, more and more, dhuwa and
yirritja. So they had sung and danced at the death, and now again
as the bones were put into the larrakitj.
The women talked about the history of the mortuary law, looking
across to the larrakitj. They sat in a group weaving baskets, making
string, and preparing colours and talked of the traditional tools
like guyarra and dhirrimul, and the various dyes and ochres which
were used.
A CHILD OF
GARMA by Nicole
Last night Mandawuy Yunupingu said that it was through music I am
"able to feel comfortable moving from my world to the Balanda
world". This appears to be the challenge and expectation of
Indigenous people of Australia; finding the appropriate medium for
accessing the imposed Western (mainstream, dominant) world without
losing the qualities of themselves and all that is embodied in culture.
For my part as a balanda, I believe I most comfortably come to know
Indigenous people and culture as a child might. That is learning
through imitation, play and by being constantly told and reminded
of my place in relationship to others. In being seen as a child
I have some latitude extended in respect to appropriate behaviours.
For example, I am not yet disciplined for speaking to people who
should normally be avoided, I am tolerated when speaking out of
turn or asking too many stupid questions. I can be distracted during
ceremonies and am laughed at when I get the steps wrong; the effort
is emphasised rather than the result. I can play with and explore
the cultural mores, explicit learning has not yet begun.
So when do I grow up and how do I grow up? Two types of people play
key roles; non-Indigenous who have had long-term and mature relationships
with Indigenous cultures and, of course, Indigenous people themselves.
Garma has been a wonderful opportunity to dialogue with both.
The former, I believe, play a critical role in passing on gently
and patiently the knowledge, behaviours and underlying understandings
that bring non-Indigenous into a mature relationship with Indigenous
people. Of particular value is their experience in the process of
putting aside Western concepts in order to accommodate Indigenous
concepts. These people have the opportunity to play a vital role
in the preparation of the heart, mind and soul of others, allowing
them to embrace Indigenous people and culture. Where they cannot
be involved is the passing on of culturally specific knowledge and
law and the timing of same. This will always remain the sole decision-making
right of Indigenous communities.
Garma has had many faces and many lessons. The lesson for me has
been to come as a child. It's true that coming as a child does result
in a loss of power, or perhaps a redistribution of power. However,
through remembering the joy and openness of being a child and the
delight of new discoveries I am prepared for some serious play.
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