Photos of Barunga Festival, Australia

The community of Barunga, about 80 kilometres on a sealed road east of Katherine, hosts a music, cultural and sport celebration, the Barunga Festival, in June each year. These photos are of the festival as it took place in 2018.

The Barunga Festival celebrates Indigenous community life with a program of workshops, dancing ceremonies, traditional bush tucker gathering, didgeridoo making, basket weaving, spear throwing, musical performances at night and sport: AFL (Australian Football), softball and basketball, with teams from all over the Northern Territory and from as far away as Mowanjum, near Derby, in the north of Western Australia. The festival in 2018 marked 30 years since the “Barunga Statement”, a text calling for Indigenous rights that was presented to the then Prime Minister of Australia, Bob Hawke, when he visited in 1988, as part of the Bicentennial celebrations.

Check out the videos of Barunga Festival, 2018 and Barunga Festival in 1995.