What is the Barunga Festival?
The Barunga Festival is an annual celebration of Aboriginal culture, music and sport held in the community of Barunga, about 80 kilometres southeast of Katherine in the Northern Territory.
The festival, usually held over a June long weekend, brings together people from communities across the Top End. It features traditional dance, bands, art, spear throwing, basket weaving and football and softball competitions.
Barunga is famous in Australian history as the place where, in 1988, Prime Minister Bob Hawke received the Barunga Statement. The statement, painted on bark, called for Aboriginal self-determination, land rights and a treaty.
The Barunga Statement
Hawke promised a treaty would be negotiated, but it never happened. The statement was presented by Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Wenten Rubuntja, and it now hangs in Parliament House in Canberra.
In 2018, the festival hosted the signing of an agreement between the Northern Territory Government and land councils to begin treaty talks in the Territory.
Visitors are welcome to camp at the festival, which is alcohol-free. It is one of the best-known community festivals in the Northern Territory.
Did You Know?
Yothu Yindi's song Treaty was inspired by Hawke's 1988 promise at Barunga.