GARMA FESTIVAL, 5-9 AUGUST 2005

MEDIA RELEASE -- 3 MARCH 2005

Garma 2005 - Indigenous Cultural Livelihoods

The Garma Festival of Traditional Indigenous Culture -- Australia's leading cultural exchange event and venue for one of the country's leading forums on indigenous issues -- is on again at Gulkula, near Nhulunbuy in north-east Arnhem Land on August 5 to 9, 2005.

And anyone interested in participating and attending can now submit an Expression of Interest to the organisers of the Festival, the Yothu Yindi Foundation.

All information and the registration link for Expression of Interest is at www.garma.telstra.com
This year, the theme of Garma's major Forum and activities will be "Indigenous Cultural Livelihoods", incorporating visual art, and dance -- including the famous nightly bunggul -- and music, as well as other important cultural livelihood subjects such as eco-tourism, trade, and craft.

We aim this year to further develop the Garma Forum as a nationally significant gathering to share and discuss art and culture projects and economic opportunities across Australia, to produce real and practical results. Garma will also continue to be a model for bringing together indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, to share knowledge and culture and foster greater understanding among Australians, and to nurture and celebrate cultural traditions and practices.

Of course, Garma will also feature the myriad of regular programs such as the eco-tourism program for up to 100 people (Garma is now a model for authentic indigenous tourism and won this year's NT Tourism "Brolga" Award for major events), women's craft programs, music workshops and seminars, and yidaki master classes. Garma has also become a major gathering for Aboriginal artists and indigenous art collectors, and art displays, presentations and projects, including the pre-eminent Garma Panel project, will be an integral part of Garma 2005.

After last year's record attendance at Garma, we are further developing facilities and services at Gulkula, without changing the unique ambience of this magnificent bush site and spectacular event.

Garma -- a festival with a deeper purpose -- has as one of its central aims the furthering of economic opportunities for Yolngu, through education, training and enterprise development, and a core element of the "Indigenous Cultural Livelihoods" forum will be the potential and existing avenues for indigenous culture to provide such economic and community development opportunities. This year, Charles Darwin University will play a lead role in co-coordinating the Forum and reporting the significant outcomes the Foundation hopes will emerge from it.