• PHOTO: Aaliyah Bartholomew, Mikiala Thurston, Myra Welsh and Temia Robinson at the Garma Festival in remote Arnhem Land.
On Thursday 28 July, four girls from the NASCA program at Coonamble High School, along with their program lead, Nina Sands, flew to the Northern Territory to attend the 2022 Garma Festival at Gulkula, a significant ceremonial ground located in a remote area of Northeast Arnhem Land.
“NASCA had the opportunity for 20 spaces from all over their sites,” said Ms Sands.
“Four girls from Coonamble applied and all four got accepted. Staff had to apply as well, so I put in an application and I was accepted, and that was awesome for all of us to go together.”
“It was such a nice thing to happen to us, out here we feel so isolated and being so far away from everything as well, it was a huge opportunity for the girls and myself.”
Established in 1999, ‘Garma’ is Australia’s premier Indigenous event.
Taking place on Yolngu country, the festival is a celebration of the cultural, artistic and ceremonial traditions of the Yolngu people.
Over the four days of the festival, the NASCA students; Aaliyah Bartholomew (Year 10), Mikiala Thurston (Year 9), Myra Welsh (Year 9) and Temia Robinson (Year 9) learnt about, and participated in the rich cultural heritage of their Yolngu hosts, experiencing traditional miny’tji (art), ancient story-telling, manikay (song) and bunggul (dance).
“There was so much to immerse yourself in,” Ms Sands said.
“You could go and look at art, you could sit down with the locals and just do weaving, beading and stuff like that with shells, making necklaces and earrings.”
The Coonamble girls were involved in Garma’s ‘Youth Forumn’, a mini-Garma in itself, with four days of programmed activities and workshops designed to build confidence and knowledge amongst school aged students from across Australia.
They participated in a broad range of activities, from song-writing, drumming and movement workshops to storytelling and weaving.
“We stayed there for a week, camping on site,” said Ms Sands.
“There was always something happening, from sun up to sun down, so you were that tired you would just fall asleep in your tent.”
Some of the most notable experiences for the girls that attended, were the Yolŋu cultural activities.
“They got to do one day where they went out and collected the bark needed for a welcoming ceremony.” said Nina.
“Sometimes they even made us chew on the bark before spitting it out” said Temia Robinson.
“I think just having that cultural experience, obviously we have culture here but up there it’s just very different and just so strong still.” said Nina.
During their time at Garma, the NASCA students had the opportunity to meet lots of really interesting people, including many of the artists featured in the outdoor Gapan gallery, visiting politicians and both national and international musicians.
“We got to meet Linda Burney (Minister for Indigenous Affairs) and Stan Grant (NITV news)” said Temia Robinson.
“We didn’t meet Albanese, but we saw him.”
Musical acts, J-Milla and his younger brother Yung Milla, were a big hit amongst the group following their performance at the festival.
Mikiala Thurston was slightly star-struck by J-Milla, saying “We were on his Instagram, you could see me and Temia on it.”
However, it was the Yolngu locals that really made a lasting impression on the Coonamble girls.
“The locals were really interesting, the girls just vibed with a group of local boys that hung around us all week, they were so adorable,” said Ms Sands.
“It was cool how they speak their language, even the little kids did too, it was really cute,” said Miss Robinson.
“The girls were really impressed with how the kids were involved in what was taking place, because when they did welcomes and stuff the kids were playing didgeridoo and just working with the elders and stuff,” said Ms Sands.
Both Temia and Mikiala, two of the girls that attended, expressed that they got a lot out of the trip and specifically enjoyed the cultural focus of the Garma festival.
“It kind of taught us to respect the culture more” said Temia.
Mikayla, who is a dancer herself, found the cultural dances particularly inspiring.
“The dancing was amazing,” said Mikiala.
“It was the first time they ever did a Torres Strait Islander one, and it was great that we could just join in if we wanted to.”
Nina Sands said that she was really impressed with how well the girls immersed themselves in the local culture, “It really teaches you how different everyone’s culture is, it’s just so beautiful to see the other cultures.”
“If NASCA wants to take us again they definitely can.”