Garma Festival

At the 2008 Garma Festival of Traditional Culture, the nationally significant Key Forum will explore the cultural, environmental, and economic importance of Indigenous Knowledge, and the many benefits and opportunities emanating from the nurturing, preservation and use of that knowledge.

The Key Forum, held over three days at Australia’s leading Indigenous cultural exchange event, will examine current actions and plans and develop key recommendations and policies in regard to Indigenous cultural traditions and practices.

In particular, it will feature presentations and discussions on the use and involvement of:

Indigenous people and their traditional ecological knowledge in planning, land management and use, and sustainable economic development policies and actions.
Indigenous ecological and land management knowledge in regard to the challenge of climate change and its effects, particularly on remote communities.
Traditional Indigenous governance and operating procedures in contemporary Australia
Indigenous art and performance in maintaining social cohesion, cultural identity and community wellbeing.

Aiming to ensure practical, positive outcomes from Key Forums, the Yothu Yindi Foundation (organiser of the Garma Festival) has introduced a rolling set of Forum themes which currently include: Indigenous Education, Indigenous Health and Indigenous Knowledge –each an issue of vital and basic importance. Each theme will be revisited on a regular cycle to review policies, actions and the progress of recommendations arising from the previous forum on that theme. Each year at Garma also it is intended that there will be a separate session focussed on Regional Economic Development, and other sub-Forums on particular matters and issues, eg Indigenous art, traditional healing

Indigenous Knowledge: Caring for Culture and Country

The 2008 Garma Key Forum will be centred on Indigenous knowledge and the potential benefits and opportunities emanating from it in regard to economic development, land use, community wellbeing and promoting traditional Indigenous culture.

While recognising that something is “wrong” between “mainstream” development objectives and Indigenous cultural priorities, there appears to be general consensus on all sides that changes must take place in order for traditional cultural and environmental knowledge to survive. Survival depends on establishing a new framework of thinking from within which Indigenous communities, governments, industries and developers – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous – can negotiate their development priorities through a framework with real benefits for all.

At issue is:

the need for strategic review of the balance between the standard operating procedures of government, economic development, and traditional Indigenous ecological knowledge;
the incorporation of Indigenous peoples into, and beyond, the early planning stages of mainstream development, social policy and land use; and
clear recognition of the economic and social significance of Indigenous culture and the benefits that can be derived from adapting mainstream institutions that regulate and govern land use and economic development to Indigenous land management systems.

All three matters will form the foundations for the Key Forum on Indigenous Knowledge at the 2008 Garma Festival.

Indigenous societies are under unprecedented pressure to stabilise the social and economic dimension of their local Indigenous systems. The economic and social development of many Indigenous communities has been seriously undermined by western ideals and practices and any sort of recovery and progress is seemingly dependent upon the striking of a balance between Indigenous cultural and economic priorities and modern development and imperatives. Mainstream conventional concepts of land use and Indigenous ecological practices and development tend to perpetuate tensions between Indigenous traditional land practitioners, cultural priorities, “western” policies and key issues related to the environment, economic strategies, industry and government.

First, there is an urgent need to take a systematic approach to halting the loss of Indigenous knowledge and to support local land management programs that will assist Aboriginal people to achieve a quality of life enjoyed by other, non-Indigenous Australians, particularly in northern Australia. Quality of life is much more than a passive involvement in economic development and land management.

At one level, achieving quality of life and equity is contingent on economic freedom and sustainability. Indigenous peoples must feel secure about gaining a place at the table which will guarantee them control over the ownership, the use, and economic development of their land within the overall decision-making processes.

At another level is the need to ensure that economic and development entrepreneurs and governments can participate fruitfully with Indigenous people, non-Indigenous bureaucrats, governments, and private developers, to revise their understanding of Indigenous practices, operating procedures and governance systems.

The strength and perseverance of traditional Indigenous culture remains very powerful but the ability of Indigenous people to live up to their traditional responsibility of caring for country has been seriously inhibited.

Ultimately, for better or worse, governance permeates every aspect of putting Indigenous knowledge into practice. Part of the reason is that modern “western” development has advanced rapidly into Indigenous life within a very brief time frame.

The result is that Indigenous knowledge – an ancient culture -based system specific to different Indigenous peoples – is required to fit into the existing practices designed to fulfil the contemporary needs of western ideals.

In short, the ancient inheritance of culture, tradition and land belonging to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples has been significantly affected by the impact of settlement, government, industry and economic development, but can and should still play a vital role in social, economic and cultural policy and action.