Remote Arnhem Land youth reflects on loss amid cultural pride and policy debate

While staying in the tiny community of Baniyala in East Arnhem Land, a teenage boy proudly waved a sea-rights flag that symbolizes a landmark native-title case. He spoke of his family, noting a brother who passed away years earlier, and told the visitor his own coffin will be white and his sister's green. The visit coincided with a ceremony that returned the remains of nine Yolŋu ancestors taken by an anthropologist a century ago, an event meant to heal historic wounds.

At the nearby Garma Festival, independent MP and Yolŋu elder Yingiya Guyula accused the Country Liberal Party of enacting laws that amount to a slow genocide of Indigenous peoples. The festival also featured a heated discussion on the Closing the Gap framework, with activist Michael Mansell calling it corrupt, National Children’s Commissioner Sue-Anne Hunter demanding accountability, and Shadow Minister Julian Leeser urging a review of funded interventions.