Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I want to talk about the incredible work of the Yothu Yindi Foundation. Established in 1990, the Yothu Yindi Foundation promotes the cultural development of the Yolngu nation and the community leaders and knowledge holders of five clan groups. Yothu Yindi refers to the child-mother relationship, symbolising balance and harmony, as having a special place in Yolngu culture. A core mission of the Yothu Yindi Foundation is equality between First Nations people and non-First Nations people.

This foundation works in the running of the annual Garma Festival. Garma is the largest gathering of First Nations people and culture in the country. This year's theme was djambatj, which the Yolngu people refer to as a vision of perfection. Last weekend I had the honour of joining thousands of people, including Minister Burney, the Prime Minister, Senator McCarthy, Marion Scrymgour, Gordon Reid and many others at Gulkula for the annual Garma Festival. This year was the first Garma Festival since the passing of Yolngu elder Dr Yunupingu. His legacy was honoured beautifully throughout the weekend through art, dance, song and story-telling. I want to thank the Gumatj traditional owners for being so welcoming to all of us, for letting us tread lightly on their country and for sharing their culture and knowledge with us.

Throughout the weekend I was honoured to have so many conversations with First Nations people from right across the country. I've learnt so much from events such as these. They are such important events for all of us to come together, catch up and yarn about our community, and there is certainly a lot to yarn about. That's why having these meetings on country is so important. It is a chance not only for us to reconnect and ground ourselves in country and culture but also for First Nations people to share our rich and beautiful culture with the rest of the country. This location is where the fresh water meets the salt water. Cultural knowledge that was on display last weekend has been passed down from our old people, and we continue the sacred tradition of knowing and sharing with the next generation of our children and their children through festivals such as Garma.

Putting on an event like this is a huge effort. I want to thank the Yothu Yindi Foundation and congratulate them on this—in particular, Denise and Sean. It is far from the only work that they do. The Yothu Yindi Foundation also runs the Dilak Council. I had the pleasure of meeting and are having dinner with some of those on the council, which brings together senior cultural leaders of the 13 clans in a formal decision-making body based on traditional governance and self-determination. They also run an empowered communities initiative and the Garma Institute, which has worked for years towards establishing a world-class education hub in north-east Arnhem Land. This dream came true over the weekend, as the Prime Minister announced funding for such a facility. This will be a game changer for the region and will offer culturally appropriate education from early childhood through to secondary education, as well as VET and tertiary education.

The Yothu Yindi Foundation has stated that this is the culmination of more than 20 years of work by both the foundation and its communities' leaders. We know that First Nations children are not engaged with the mainstream education system. It is not culturally appropriate, it's not taught in language and it leads to poor outcomes down the track. Unemployment, incarceration and poor health outcomes are just some of those outcomes. We know that everything works better when it is co-designed with First Nations people. Education is no exception, so having an education curriculum that is centred on culture will unleash the potential of the next generation and will lead to improved outcomes. I had the pleasure of sitting with the youth forum to discuss some of these outcomes.

The Yothu Yindi Foundation is just one example of what can happen when First Nations people are centred, are listened to and have their self-determination respected. I encourage all of you to familiarise yourself with the incredible work of this foundation—you may even like to become an ambassador—and that of many other First Nations organisations that are protecting our culture and ensuring that our kids have a bright future ahead of them.

Senate adjourned at 19:59