Society and Culture
Yolngu culture and ties to the land are still very strong and sacred. Many people still live mainly a traditional life. Each August, Gulkula near Nhulunbuy, holds the Garma festival. This is a celebration of Yolngu culture is considered one of the most important indigenous festivals in Australia. Around 2,000 Indigenous and non-Indigenous people travel from around Australia and the world to attend the festival to learn and contribute. Garma is a Yolngu word for ‘two-way learning process’. There is traditional and contemporary music and dance, art and craft, education, performances and sport. Art and craft is gaining worldwide recognition and is an opportunity for Yolngu to gain economic independence. The Gove Peninsula has three outstanding art centres, Nambara Arts and Crafts near Nhulunbuy, Buku Larrngay Mulka in Yirrkala and Elcho Island Art and Craft. The artists of North East Arnhem continue to paint their sacred designs using ochres on bark. This not only reflects the sanctity of their connection with the land they paint but an artistic discipline that is recognised internationally.
Read more about this topic: Gove Peninsula
Famous quotes containing the words society and/or culture:
“Let him be great, and love shall follow him. Nothing is more deeply punished than the neglect of the affinities by which alone society should be formed, and the insane levity of choosing associates by others’ eyes.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The white dominant culture seemed to think that once the Indians were off the reservations, they’d eventually become like everybody else. But they aren’t like everybody else. When the Indianness is drummed out of them, they are turned into hopeless drunks on skid row.”
—Elizabeth Morris (b. c. 1933)