Malcolm Turnbull has been given the gift of Yolngu words, the gift of Indigenous trust, and the opportunity to change Australian history. After four days of discussion and debate in northeast Arnhem Land, it remains unclear what he will do with them.
The Garma festival at Gulkula, the culturally significant Gumatj site on the Gove peninsula, is many things. It is a coming together of Yolngu and Balanda, bridging cultures and teaching the latter, many of whom have flown up from corporate and urban lives “down south” to immerse themselves in Indigenous culture.
It is a celebration and a get-together – both formal and friendly – for Indigenous families and tribes from across Arnhem Land.
Garma is also an exploration of Indigenous affairs and a highly charged, high-level political forum, and this year thrashed out the issue of constitutional reform. The weekend ended with hope and determination, but also more questions.
After an historic meeting at Uluru, which produced the statement from the heart that informed the referendum council’s report, the way forward was clear as far as Indigenous Australians were concerned: a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament, followed by a makarrata – a Yolngu word gifted by Gumatj leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu to describe making peace after a conflict – and a truth-telling process.
Hopes that the prime minister would use the event to make a big announcement were dashed early on, as his speeches – which he began by speaking in Yolngu Matha – declared only that it was being “seriously considered”, and he avoided questions about whether he would personally push for it or encourage Australians to support it.
Shorten gave his and Labor’s unequivocal support for the council’s proposals - which Prof Megan Davis said was a “huge step forward” - but there remain concerns among caucus members about the lack of recommendations to amend the race powers.
Timelines were demanded. Shorten called for a parliamentary committee to devise a referendum question by the end of the year. One senior Yolngu who breakfasted with the PM suggested it might be decades away. Galarrwuy Yunupingu gave the leaders a month.
The formidable Gumatj leader, currently in a wheelchair, is getting a prosthetic foot and says he’ll be standing again within a month. By then, he decreed, the two government leaders should be standing together as well.
Sean Bowden, legal counsel for Gumatj corporation said Yunupingu was “as determined as I’ve ever seen him”.
Yunupingu “generally gets it right,” Bowden said. “He thinks the PM must lead, and he thinks the parliament must lead. The Australian people aren’t necessarily going to listen to him, they need their elected parliamentarians to take them forward.”
The Gumatj leader left his trust with the PM and instructed others to do the same.
Djunga Djunga Yunupingu, a senior Gumatj man and uncle to the departed singer Dr G Yunupingu, said he trusted Turnbull.
“He heard the message. If he goes back to his chamber, his parliament, he’ll pass it on to his full council. The full council might say yes or no, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed.”
Timelines are problematic. Assuming Turnbull gets the council’s proposal past his cabinet colleagues, the Australian public will need to be convinced. Turnbull told the crowd about 40% of people who know nothing about an issue will likely vote no. He recalled his failed 1999 referendum on becoming a republic.
In a subsequent speech Shorten retorted Aboriginal people “don’t need a Balanda lecture about the difficulty of changing the constitution”.
Australians do need some form of education before a referendum, and there are big questions around what a new campaign for this one would look like and how it will be funded.
The multimillion-dollar, government-funded Recognise campaign had four years to bring the public on board with constitutional recognition. That campaign is now defunct and there isn’t a strong sense it laid a great deal of groundwork for the new R – reform.
The chief executive of Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council, Andrea Mason, said discussions around how to “spread the message” were under way.
“We don’t have any funds for the next step … There is no organisational body with funds,” she said.
Vincent Forrester, Anangu traditional owner from Mutitjulu, suggested an “eminent persons committee” to take it forward.
“They’ve got to educate the rest of Australia. Our job is to educate our mob,” he said.
Turnbull was not the only one to note there were many questions around the proposals: what does the voice look like and will it be different for the Yolngu, for Torres Strait Islanders, for Indigenous people living in western Sydney? Will it push for Indigenous people elected to parliament? How will it affect child protection and justice sectors when that legislation largely sits with states and territories?
Nolan Hunter, head of the Kimberley Land Council and member of the referendum council working group, said the proposal was a double-edged sword.
“If you ask for too much in a referendum proposal the likelihood of it getting up is quite difficult,” he said.
The referendum council focused on the key things people were saying in the dialogues but because the Uluru statement didn’t have the necessary detail, the difficulty for Turnbull in taking it to cabinet was clear.
The former deputy Liberal leader and Indigenous affairs minister Fred Cheney said Turnbull’s caution was understandable.
“The plea [from Uluru] was that we have done what was thought to be impossible,” said Cheney.
“We’ve arrived at a united Aboriginal position which has put aside many of the things that have been requested in the past, and come up with a single key recommendation – a voice. And the request to us that we would go from Garma and support in the communities that we are part of, the notion of a voice.”
There is no more patience for government delays.
The recommendations from the council delivered what was requested. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were finally – properly – asked what they wanted. They answered. It’s now down to Canberra politics to get it over the line, and according to the delegates and attendees at Garma, they must.
“They’ve told us that no government has responded to any of the reports – not the expert panel report, not the parliamentary committee report,” Cheney said. “We are at the point where we want government and parliament to respond to these united Aboriginal positions.”
Academic Marcia Langton said she didn’t want to die before the issue was solved and she was “sick to death” of younger generations coming in and saying how things should be done.
“We are royal commissioned out, we are expert panelled out. Enough, let’s do it.”
Past years of the festival have been dominated by a recent event. In 2015 it was the racist abuse of Adam Goodes. In 2016 it was the Four Corners report on Don Dale, which aired just a week before. This year the passing of Dr G Yunupingu, the internationally renowned singer and musician, was never far from proceedings. Dr G Yunupingu’s life and his death were inextricably linked with much of that discussed at Garma.
Djunga Djunga Yunupingu spoke stridently to the prime minister as he paid respects to his deceased nephew.
“He was an Australian man and a Maralitja man who sung in our language for your ears,” he said.
“He left us without truly knowing his place in this nation.”
Yunupingu is holding Turnbull to making amends on the tragedy.
“Prime ministers they promise: we’ll do this,” he told Guardian Australia a few days later. “That’s why we vote for them, because we hear good things, we think this is the prime minister we want to unite us to bring us into one fold, and guide us with what he promised to us. If he sticks to that, manymak [good].”
