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Yolngu culture in north-east Arnhem Land - a heartland of Aboriginal culture and land rights - is among the oldest living cultures on earth, stretching back more than 40,000 years. It has survived more intact than many other Aboriginal communities that have lost their connection to land through historical dispossession. The annual Garma Festival is one of Australia’s most significant Indigenous celebrations, attracting around twenty clan groups from across Arnhem land and the Northern Territory.

The Garma ceremony is aimed at sharing knowledge and culture, and opening people’s hearts to the message of the land at Gulkula. The site at Gulkula has profound meaning for Yolngu. Set in a stringybark forest with views to the Gulf of Carpentaria, Gulkula is where the ancestor Ganbulabula brought the yidaki (didjeridu) into being among the Gumatj people. The festival is designed to encourage the practice, preservation and maintenance of traditional dance (bunggul), song (manikay), art and ceremony on Yolngu lands in Northeast Arnhem Land.