Garma!

Wow. That was all that I expected it to be and more. The few people that I had talked to here in Sydney before I went, (who had been to the festival before,) built it up so much that by the time I was leaving Sydney I was almost worried that I was expecting too much from it... this was not the case.

I will only give a brief overview here, as: 1) I don't want to spend a ton of time right now on the internet describing it, and 2) I am not allowed to post pictures from the festival on my blog, so the visual images will have to wait until I see you all in person, and can give you a better idea of what I was fortunate enough to experience.

Each morning, I would wake up around 6:30 to be ready for breakfast at 7am. The usual breakfast was a choice of either cereal, or bacon,eggs, sausage, potatoes, etc... or both/ whatever you wanted. The tent that was our dining area was right on the edge of this escarpment, looking out on an incredible view: a great way to start each day. After breakfast, we would head back to our camp site to have our little morning meeting. This morning meeting could include anything from a welcoming ceremony provided by the Yolngu family hosting us, to a discussion about some cultural topic, to an overview of what the events of that day would hold, to simply a cup of tea/coffee and some friendly chatter with the other festival goers.

I was part of the 'cultural tourism' group, which included about 30 men and 70 women. A lot of the activities were divided up into groups of men and women. Some of the people there were doing study related things like me, while others were simply curious Australians who were interested in learning more about the Indigenous culture of their country. Over all, I think there were over 3000 people at the festival, probably about half Aboriginal, and half non-Aboriginal. A large portion of those people were there for the key forum, which was only a three day festival, rather than the five days that I was there... and also, it was mainly just lectures and discussions in tents around the camp grounds: much more boring that what I got to do.

Each day we would do some fun activity: spear making, fire making, fishing... etc. and then at 4 o'clock, we would all gather at the central ceremony grounds to watch the evening bunggul, (dance ceremony). This would run for 2 to 3 hours, and consisted of various clan groups from around Arnhem land coming in to perform a set of their traditional songs and dances for us. It was great because it was very much like a lot of the things I have been reading about, but I was actually there in the action. That was the greatest part of this festival, I really got to experience it, and be there first hand.

After the bunggul and then dinner, there were a number of options for the evening. You could either go to an astronomy session, led by some astronomers from nearby communities. (This was really cool, because they brought some big telescopes to look at the southern sky... they also told some stories that related the stars to Aboriginal culture.) Or, you could go to the nightly film showing, at which they would show various documentaries, short films, etc. about Aboriginal culture. Or... you could go to the nightly concert, where various Aboriginal/ non-Aboriginal groups would perform anything from rock and roll, country, hip-hop, etc... One of the most famous performers was Jimmy Little, who was one of the first Aboriginal country musicians to become famous (back in the 1960's). He is getting a bit older now, but is still playing, and is an amazing guy. I got to talk with him briefly later in the week, which was really cool. Anyways, the concerts would go past midnight usually, at which point I would drag myself back to my tent and pass out on my air mattress, to wake up and have another amazing day the next day.

It was such an amazing experience, and I'm so glad I was able to go up there and experience such a different culture than what I'm used to.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have kept up with my blog this summer. It was nice to get comments from many of you at various points throughout my stay here in Australia, and just to know that you all were interested in what I was doing and learning. I can't believe how fast the time flew by, and that I'm already heading back to the States tomorrow. I look forward to sharing more of my pictures and stories with you all, as well as hearing about all that I missed back in the US.

signing off.
-the didgeridude.