00:00It's good to be with you here from Yolngu country on the lands of the Gumatj people.
00:05The incredible Gokula in Arnhem Land where so many people are gathering to talk about
00:11the future but really also reflecting on the most immediate past.
00:15And those comments that were made by the Chairman of the Yothi Indy Foundation, Jawa Yunupingu,
00:20to my ABC colleague, Dana Morse, were incredibly strong in looking to the future.
00:27And of course, the questions that have remained for so many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
00:32people since the failed voice referendum last year are about what are the mechanisms to
00:38play a greater role in Australian public life.
00:40And there are people that speak to treaty, others to truth-telling, and of course we're
00:44seeing mechanisms around voice and representation in different forms across the nation.
00:51But it was very clear from the tone of what we heard from Jawa Yunupingu that the discussions
00:57about treaty seem to have been flawed and seem to have taken a back seat.
01:02Here he is.
01:04Treaty is always on the mind but it's a long way off.
01:07To be honest, myself, looking at probably 30, 40 years, I won't be here.
01:13But it's a good way that we talk to treaty.
01:16Right now, we are in caretaker mode here in the Northern Territory for an election that
01:21some across the Territory have been talking of as incredibly consequential about future
01:27relations between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other Territorians.
01:31There is a new Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malindirri McCarthy, who of course
01:36comes from Yanyawigatju country not too far from here in the Northern Territory, and there's
01:42a lot of expectation about the role that Minister Malindirri McCarthy will bring in
01:47this new role.
01:48Of course, we are likely under 12 months from a Federal election and 10 months since, of
01:54course, the failed referendum.
01:55Yeah, of course, really important points there, Dan.
01:59On to the theme of this year's GAMA, it's Fire, Strength and Renewal.
02:04I know you know the program inside out and you would have earmarked where you can attend
02:08and where you've got to work.
02:10What can people expect?
02:12Well, you do really get the sense that the focus of this GAMA is about that sense of
02:18renewal.
02:19There will be a lot of discussion about the next raft of Indigenous leaders stepping into
02:25the public spotlight, having big conversations about the future.
02:29And of course, fire is a very important totem to the Gumatji people here.
02:33It's both about renewal and having the effect on the land of creating new life.
02:40But of course, it's that land that instills such a sense of purpose for the Gumatji people
02:45here.
02:46And so we're going to get a real exploration of what that means and how that plays out
02:50and what that will look like into the future.
02:53Of course, there will be a very big focus on politics.
02:56The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, will be speaking, giving a keynote address tomorrow.
03:01And we know there'll be an extraordinary conversation about federal politics and how
03:05that all plays out.
03:07But there is also a big focus on health, on wellbeing, on education.
03:11We saw this week the latest snapshot of the Closing the Gap targets, with many of those
03:16going backwards.
03:17And in fact, not only sitting still, but getting worse in some instances as well.
03:22So I expect that we'll be hearing a lot more about that.
03:25This afternoon, though, Cath, we'll be seeing the spiritual and cultural start at the Bungul,
03:31where there'll be an incredible amount of dancing.
03:34And that's really a way of stories being shared from one generation to the next.
03:39The late Yolungu Pingu described the Bungul ground where that ceremony happens as the
03:44universities for the Yolungu people.
03:46So what we are going to be seeing today is a real stepping into that culture and understanding
03:52the way that that has played out for tens of thousands of years and how that instills
03:56a sense of self in the next generation, Cath.
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