IN AUGUST 2016, I stood on the sacred ceremonial grounds of the Yolngu, the people of north-east Arnhem Land, for the annual Garma Festival. I have been to the festival a number of times, but more than any other, this time held a great deal of poignancy for me.

Prior to going I had read Galarrwuy Yunupingu’s beautiful essay in The Monthly, ‘Rom Watangu’. Yunupingu speaks movingly of the story of his land, his culture and the very survival of Yolngu, traversing the ancient and the contemporary, the sacred and the secular, the philosophical and the pragmatic. As he prepares himself for his journey beyond, his worry is whether we – the Australian nation – have it within ourselves to respect the survival of his Yolngu people.