Garma Festival on NITV, SBS, ABC.

Broadcasters have now updated further details of its coverage of the 22nd Garma Festival of Cultures taking place in Gulkula, Gumatj Country, in north-east Arnhem Land.

NITV / SBS:

Across four days, from Friday 29 July to Monday 1 August, NITV together with SBS is expanding its offering in 2022 and sharing the Garma experience with all Australians.

In addition to daily live coverage, updates and highlights across NITV’s platforms, SBS is also reporting from the festival in languages including Arabic and Mandarin, connecting Australia’s multicultural and multilingual communities with First Nations cultures and perspectives.

SBS Director of Indigenous Content, Tanya Denning-Orman, said, “We’re excited to be bringing the powerful stories and important moments from Garma to audiences across Australia. At the heart of our coverage is NITV, providing a front row seat to the key events and ceremony, with updates and highlights covering the big issues and cultural celebrations of the day across SBS. For the first time, this includes on-the-ground reporting from SBS in Arabic and Mandarin for TV, radio and digital, among the multilingual coverage that will feature across the network.

“Garma provides an important stage and moment for discussion about the challenges impacting First Nations communities that we face as a nation, underpinned by tens of thousands of years of cultural tradition, knowledge and practice of the Yolŋu peoples. From the daily dialogue to the beautiful Buŋgul – the traditional Yolŋu ceremony each afternoon – we have a special opportunity with NITV and across SBS to share this unique celebration of First Nations cultures, achievements and determination with all Australians through our coverage.”

Four days of comprehensive coverage will kick off on NITV with a special edition of NITV News Nula, presented by Natalie Ahmat, live from Garma from 3pm (AEDT)*, and simulcast on SBS. Then at 4.30pm, NITV will bring the sounds, speeches and culture of the Garma Opening Ceremony 2022 live.

Over the weekend on Saturday and Sunday, NITV will present the highlights from across the festival each day at 5.30pm with Garma 2022, presented by Natalie Ahmat and The Point’s John-Paul Janke, followed by Garma Buŋgul 2022 at 6.30pm each night – a one-hour special package showcasing the graceful movement of the women and the strong songs of the men at the Buŋgul, the Yolŋu cultural ceremony with over 60,000 years of connection to Country, which takes place each afternoon of the festival.

Wrapping up the four-day event coverage on Monday afternoon, NITV will present a final Garma 2022 highlights program from 5.30pm (encored on SBS the following day at 2pm and 11.40pm). NITV programs from across the festival will also be available to stream live on SBS On Demand, and for catch up.

Across NITV’s digital coverage and social media, audiences can stay up to date with all the festival’s events each day as it happens with a live blog on sbs.com.au/nitv, regular updates, insights and moments shared on NITV’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and the daily Buŋgul each afternoon streamed live on NITV Facebook.

There’ll also be coverage and crosses into SBS World News each evening, in addition to SBS’s television news bulletins in Arabic and Mandarin – SBS عربي News and SBS 中文 News – from SBS’s multilingual reporters on the ground who will also deliver coverage including live reports, articles and podcasts in Arabic, Cantonese, French, and Mandarin for SBS Radio and language services.

The Garma Festival is a celebration of the cultural, artistic and ceremonial traditions of the Yolŋu people. Held annually – but delayed since 2019 due to the pandemic – it brings together community, business and political leaders, academics and journalists to discuss critical issues facing the future of Australia. NITV is proud to once again partner with the Yothu Yindi Foundation as a Media Supporter, continuing a long relationship which has seen NITV provide its distinctive coverage of the event from a First Nations perspective since 2015.

For more information on NITV and SBS’s coverage from Garma, visit the NITV website, and follow NITV on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

ABC:

ABC Managing Director David Anderson said, “The Garma Festival is an important opportunity to focus our audiences on the important issues facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their communities.” he said.

“It is also an opportunity to celebrate the incredible culture and achievements of the world’s oldest continuous storytellers.”

The ABC will bring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, stories and culture from the Garma Festival to our audiences on all platforms from 29 July-1 August.

The annual Garma festival is run by the Yothu Yindi Foundation in north-east Arnhem Land and is Australia’s premier Indigenous cultural exchange. The event serves as a national hub for discussions, policy and action formulation, and brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians through youth forums, art, music, film, song, dance and exhibitions.

The ABC is proud to once again be Garma’s official media partner following the festival’s two-year hiatus due to COVID.

ABC’s coverage across all platforms will feature First Nations reporters, producers, technical staff and crew from across Australia.

The ABC’s coverage, led by Indigenous Affairs Editor Bridget Brennan and Supervising Producer Suzanne Dredge can be seen and heard on the ABC TV and ABC News channel, Local Radio and across our digital and social platforms during the festival and beyond.

The theme for this year’s event is Nhanga Ngathilyurra, a Yolngu phrase meaning “to look ahead towards the future”.

On Sunday 31 July at 9am Insiders will broadcast live from the festival for the first time on ABC TV and ABC iview.

A special episode of Q+A with recently announced ongoing host Stan Grant will be filmed in Arnhem Land and broadcast on ABC TV and ABC iview at 9:35pm on Monday 1 August.

David Speers will be joined on the Back to You podcast on Friday 29 July by Bridget Brennan and Dan Bouchier at Garma.

RN Breakfast presenter Patricia Karvelas will be back at Garma this year reporting for ABC News and ABC Radio and ABC News host Dan Bourchier will also be at the festival reporting for ABC News.

ABC TV program Art Works will be on hand to capture the unique art, songs, and dancing from the festival.

For kids, news program Behind The News will once again support Garma’s Youth Forum to inspire the next generation of budding journalists and the Little Yarns team will be there to share the festival with our youngest audiences.

ABC iview will feature a curated collection to support the event, with new content added over the week.

This year the ABC is also celebrating the 20th anniversary of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory group the Bonner Committee. First established in 2002, its name commemorates the late Neville Bonner AO, Australia’s first Aboriginal Senator and an ABC Board member from 1983 to 1991. Under the Committee’s guidance the ABC continues to improve our representation of Indigenous Australians across our policy and programming.