There were many tears shed at the opening of the 19th Garma festival, as the Gumatj clan – on whose land the event is held – paid tribute to singer and cultural ambassador, Dr G Yunupingu, who died last week at the age of 46.
As his brothers sang a reworked Dr G song about fire, sending the words into the sky with the smoke and dust, family members wailed and mourned. Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s wife Lucy hugged and cried with them.
Midway through the song three women stood in the audience, holding their hands together and aloft. The crowd followed suit. Young Gumatj children, oblivious to the solemnity, shrieked and played in the ceremony ground dirt.
The singer’s uncle, Djunga Djunga Yunupingu looked on with tears in his eyes. He had earlier urged the crowd for a moment’s silence, and spoke of his 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.”
The theme of the four-day Indigenous festival this year is Makarrata – a Yolngu word for coming together after a struggle. The overwhelming discussion is of constitutional reform, after the referendum council endorsed the Uluru statement from the heart and told government it should formally enshrine an Indigenous voice in parliament.
There is a sense of both hope and fear - hope that for once Indigenous people have been listened to and fear that their request will be put in the too-hard basket.
Djunga Djungu Yunupingu paid his respects to traditional owners of Australia who had gathered.
“We love you and we all know how much you have suffered and the hurtful things have been done to you – but like us you are still here and will always be here.”
He asked Turnbull and Shorten to “speak with the tongue of fire” and to find a wayawu, “a pathway to a place of goodness that we cannot find”.
Turnbull, as he often does in a mark of respect at Indigenous events, spoke in the language and was warmly received. So too were Shorten’s words – although he spoke in English – acknowledging this “always was and always will be Aboriginal land”.
Shorten reaffirmed his desire for the prime minister to join him in constructing a referendum question by the end of the year, and to explore the creation of a Makarrata and truth telling process. Turnbull looked into the distance, listening but not reacting. The opposition leader questioned if Garma 2017 would be the one remembered as the time “Australia swapped talk for action”.
Turnbull made no announcement in his speech but said he was there as the nation’s leader to listen.
“The relationship between our nation and its First Peoples is a deeply complex one, but it’s not static, it’s not frozen in time. It’s forever growing and changing. Our journey of reconciliation is made up of many steps – practical and symbolic,” he said.
He acknowledged the path had a way to go but said it would be easier to tread if all Australians were brought with them.
Fire was a common theme at the formal event. Gumatj leader, Galurrwuy Yunupingu, earlier gave Turnbull and Shorten the gift of “sacred words of fire”.
“You will know that at Uluru we started a fire. A fire that we hope burns bright for Australia,” he said.
“The fire is now our future and I have given the fire to you so you can talk with us with tongues of fire. Because we have come here for serious business, prime minister. Very serious business.”
He asked the two leaders to learn the words of fire and use them at Gulkula, which he said was “the perfect place to find a path to settlement”.
On the eve of the festival Shorten got ahead of the talks, proposing to the prime minister immediate and bipartisan action on a referendum question based on the recommendations of the referendum council. Turnbull has yet to give a commitment or an indication of whether his government supports the call to enshrine an Indigenous voice to parliament in the constitution.
The NT chief minister, Michael Gunner, earlier in the day told Guardian Australia it was important to hear what was said at the Uluru convention and find a way to work through it.
“You can’t say you’re listening, and then not listen,” he said.
“This is really important for Australia that we recognise the First People and recognise what they want … It’s not that it’s an easy task but you’ve got to work through it and I think the offer of a joint committee to tackle that challenge is a good one.”
He said he had heard feedback about concerns that the recommendations were “skipping over” calls to amend the race powers.
“But I’ve got to take the Uluru statement seriously and work on them,” he said.
“Sometimes in this debate we get to concentrate on just one thing, when you can actually talk about everything.”
