The Northern Myth

02/08/2025

Enjoying the Garma Festival?

Read Phil O'Brien's exclusive and entertaining look at the first Garma Festival 25 years ago!

Early Days of the Garma Festival – Part One

It was the early nineteen-nineties, and I was living in a caravan on the beach near a pretty little place called Catalina, just a stone’s throw from the Gunyangara Community.

My next-door neighbour around the rocks on the next beach was Mandawuy Yunupingu and his family.

‘Munda’ as he was known, Yalmay his wife, and their big bunch of daughters were the nicest people you could ever meet.

Their door was always open and we got to spend a lot of really good times together.

Munda was an exceptional person, he’d risen to great heights with the band Yothu Yindi and they were touring the world sharing Yolngu philosophy and understanding via their own brand of powerful rock music, and they were blowing people away.

The one thing that always amazed me was on returning from a gruelling tour is Munda would – without a second’s hesitation – whip out the guitar and go through the Yothu Yindi repertoire around the campfire with as much gusto as he could muster.

https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2025/07/16/early-days-of-the-garma-festival-part-one/

Buku-Larrnggay Mulka
Gumatj Aboriginal Corporation
Yirrmal
Garma Festival

Marion Scrymgour MP
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy - Northern Territory
Anthony Albanese

02/08/2025

Nothing to see here: Chief Minister Dismisses Findings of Institutional Racism in Northern Territory Police Force

When the NT chief minister launched a law-and-order drive last year, it has had an ‘us against them’ feel to it.

‘Us’ is the European settler colonial government and population and ‘them’ is the First Peoples, who have inhabited the region for over 60,000 years.

The tough-on-crime package most prominently targets the Aboriginal people living in the jurisdiction, which is reflected in the statistics.

The Youth Justice Amendment Bill introduced into parliament this week seeks to place the NT youth justice system under the watch of NT Corrections and out of the care of Communities.

The legislation will see the reestablishment of deadly spit hood use on children in kiddie prisons, and it removes the requirement that judges and magistrates only consider throwing a kid in gaol as a ‘last resort’.

https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2025/08/02/cm-dismisses-findings-of-institutional-racism/

This article was first published by the Sydney Criminal Lawyers website.



Northern Territory Police Force
Northern Territory Police Association
Lia Finocchiaro MLA
North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency
Central Australian Aboriginal Congress
Marion Scrymgour MP
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy - Northern Territory

19/07/2025

“We’re all eccentrics here!” Andrew McMillan on getting shickered in Larrimah, NT

This is a tale written many years ago … well, 2005 … by our dearly departed friend and colleague Andrew McMillan about Larrimah, his favourite retreat from the madness of Darwin. Larrimah has been in the news a bit lately because of the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Larrimah local Paddy Moriarty. You can see a little more about Paddy in this piece aired on the ABC’s 7.30 report last evening.

This piece was first published in Griffith Review 9: Up North, edited by Julianne Schultz, (ABC Books, Sydney) in 2005 and re-published here with their kind and enthusiastic permission. See more here: www.griffithreview.com

HALFWAY BETWEEN DARWIN and Tennant Creek – around 500 clicks each way – there’s a wide spot in the road called Larrimah. Some travellers reckon it’s another country. Those unable to get mobile coverage or anything on the car radio will tell you it’s “in the middle of nowhere”. Locals, most of whom are here because it’s “nice, quiet, relaxed”, might suggest it’s “the centre of everywhere”. Others might observe that its population of 20 is gearing up for a civil war.

Photo: Glenn Campbell

Read the rest at The Northern Myth here: https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2018/02/02/eccentrics-andrew-mcmillan/



Glenn Campbell
Griffith Review
Bob Gosford
The Northern Myth
NT Writers' Centre

18/07/2025

The NT Police Force – 45 years of ‘coons’ and ‘niggers’

I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that racist terms of abuse like ‘coons’, ‘niggers’ and the like have long been consigned to history’s dustbin of common usage.

However, from the recent revelations in Coroner Armitage’s Report into the death of Kumanjayi Walker it seems that was naïve and, at least among a small group of NT police officers, racialised language was relatively commonplace.

In 1977 Labor MP Jack Doolan began his quest to have NT police ordered to not use derogatory words about Aboriginal people.

They still do.

This is a lightly edited piece first published in Crikey in September 2022, just after Coroner Armitage ruled on the admissibility of some of former NT police officer Zachary Rolfe’s emails.

Read the rest of this tale at The Northern Myth here:
https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2025/07/18/the-nt-police-force-45-years-of-coons-and-niggers/


Northern Territory Police Force
Northern Territory Police Association
The Northern Myth
Marion Scrymgour MP
Chansey Paech: Member for Gwoja
Selena Uibo: Member for Arnhem
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy - Northern Territory

I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that racist terms of abuse like ‘coons’, ‘niggers’ and the like have long been consigned to history’s dustbin of common usage. However, from the recent revelations in Coroner Armitage’s Report into the death of Kumanjayi Walker it seems

17/07/2025

My good mate Phil O'Brien wrote this two part yarn about the early days of the wonderful Garma Festival, the 25th anniversary of which will be held in a fortnight at Gulkula on the north-east Arnhem land peninsula.

You can read the rest of this wonderful tale at my Substack below or at The Northern Myth here: https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2025/07/16/early-days-of-the-garma-festival-part-one/

Garma Festival
Yothu Yindi
East Arnhem Land
The Northern Myth
Bob Gosford

16/07/2025

Early Days of the Garma Festival – Part Two

By Phil O’Brien

As I noted at the end of Part One, at the first (unofficial) Garma Festival we were cooking on an open fire. Everything went well, and the nearby Gumatj cattle farm brought in a big mob of steak for everyone.

I’m not sure but they must have chased the cow around for a few hours before they shot it because it was a tough piece of meat, but it didn’t matter because it still tasted pretty good...
The day finally came and Garma kicked off, a gentle breeze caressing its way across the escarpment paradise of Gulkula, a place full of spirit and songlines of the past.

Day one – Gulkula and Garma
The sun shone brightly down on this moment in history.

Yidaki (didgeridoo) and Bilma (clapsticks) rang out and echoed through the woodland. Great minds with good hearts had come together … this was Garma.

From my vantage point at the Garma kitchen I got to meet some wonderful people – there were University Professors, Politicians, Artists, Actors, Anthropologists – just all sorts of people.

I think around two hundred Balanda and several hundred Yolngu were camped out at Gulkula.

Follow the links below to read the rest of this wonderful story and link across to the first part.

https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2025/07/16/early-days-of-the-garma-festival-part-two/

Garma Festival
Yothu Yindi
The Northern Myth
Bob Gosford
Paul Kelly
Phil O'Brien

By Phil O’Brien In Part One Phil O’Brien talked about his early days working at the crocodile farm in north-east Arnhem Land and meeting up with the leader of the Yothu Yindi band and the sowing

16/07/2025

Early Days Of The Garma Festival - Part One

In the first part of this tale Phil O’Brien introduces us to his early life in north-east Arnhem land, some of the locals – and not-so-locals – and the early days of the Yothu Yindi band and the formation of the Garma Festival.

Catalina Beach & campfires
It was the early nineteen-nineties, and I was living in a caravan on the beach near a pretty little place called Catalina, just a stone’s throw from the Gunyangara Community.

My next-door neighbour around the rocks on the next beach was Mandawuy Yunupingu and his family.

‘Munda’ as he was known, Yalmay his wife, and their big bunch of daughters were the nicest people you could ever meet.

Their door was always open and we got to spend a lot of really good times together.

Munda was an exceptional person, he’d risen to great heights with the band Yothu Yindi and they were touring the world sharing Yolngu philosophy and understanding via their own brand of powerful rock music, and they were blowing people away.

The one thing that always amazed me was on returning from a gruelling tour is Munda would – without a second’s hesitation – whip out the guitar and go through the Yothu Yindi repertoire around the campfire with as much gusto as he could muster.

You can read the rest of this wonderful tale - and the links to Part Two - by following the link below.

https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2025/07/16/early-days-of-the-garma-festival-part-one/

Yothu Yindi
Garma Festival
Phil O'Brien
The Northern Myth
Bob Gosford
Paul Kelly

By Phil O’Brien In the first part of this tale Phil O’Brien introduces us to his early life in north-east Arnhem land, some of the locals – and not-so-locals – and the early days of the Yothu

15/07/2025

Make Australia Grate Again. Part One – Ain’t That A Kick In The Head!

Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Price had a good election earlier this year

Price – first elected to the Senate in 2022 as representative of the local Country Liberal Party (the CLP) – was returned to the red benches and had, until Thursday last week, accepted the long-standing convention that requires that NT senators “sit” (and vote) with the conservative National Party while in Canberra.

The National Party is the poor cousin of the Liberal Party with which it has long joined to form coalition governments when they can make up the numbers.

On the Monday evening following the election Price threw a cat among the political pigeons when interviewed by Sky News “after dark” host and self-confessed Price fan-boy Chris Kenny.

Kenny asked if Price would follow convention and stay loyal to the Nationals.

Kenny: I’ll give you a leave pass on declaring your hand for leadership because you’ve got to wait for those votes to be counted but you didn’t rule out trying to switch to the Liberal Party room.

Price’s response could at best be described as a lightly dressed word salad.

Price: Yeah look, as I said there’s a lot to consider right now, um at this point in time … what we need to be able to do is be in a strong position going forward so that we can rebuild as a Coalition you know and as part of the Nats we need to support the Libs in that direction absolutely and …

Itv all went downhill from there when price spoke to Sky's Peta Credlin the next evening.

Read the rest The Northern Myth here or below: https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2025/05/11/make-australia-grate-again-part-one/

Country Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Australia
Australian Labor Party
Territory Labor
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy - Northern Territory
Marion Scrymgour MP
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price

Jacinta Price on Sky News. 7 May 2025 Be careful what you pray for, you just might get itBe careful what you pray for, you might regret itYou get your hands on that glittering prizeNow everybody's coming at you from every

15/07/2025

Make Australia Grate Again. Part Two – “Revenge Digs Two Graves, Makes A Young Person Old”

This is Part Two of two looking at NT Senator Jacinta Price’s 2025 election campaign - Dearth of the True Believers..
Why was Price a no-show in the NT bush?
Apart from her photo-shoot at Uluru two and a half weeks earlier, Price’s Facebook and socials posts indicate that her visit to the Coolalinga booth just before Anzac Day was the closest Price got to a remote polling booth between the announcement of the poll in late March and polling day in early May.

I’m happy to be proven wrong – and please let me know if I am – but it beggars belief that any candidate wouldn’t publicise visits to remote polling booths and communities on their socials or that it would surface on or in the TV, radio or newspapers, particularly when the more than 30 mobile polling teams are abroad right across the NT.

Was Price in witness protection or was she too “toxic” out bush?
It is tempting to conclude that one reason Senator Price was “sent to Coventry” was because she was in a kind of political witness protection, the rationale being that if she was kept out-of-sight-and-mind then there would be no more embarrassing “Make Australia Great Again” or similar gaffes.

As Chris Kenny of Sky News observed on the Monday following the election (but without receiving a relevant response) Price was, “hardly front and centre” … “then you kinda disappeared again,” and “your own lack of prominence in the campaign and linking to Trump must have frustrated you enormously.”

Read the rest of Part Two at The Northern Myth by following this link.

https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2025/05/11/make-australia-grate-again-part-two/

Country Liberal Party
Australian Labor Party
Territory Labor
Liberal Party of Australia
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy - Northern Territory
Marion Scrymgour MP
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price
The Northern Myth
Bob Gosford

15/07/2025

How The North Was Lost: the Country Liberal Party loses Lingiari (again)

It was a surprise to no-one that the NT Country Liberal Party was short-priced favourite to win the NT general election in late August 2024.

The incumbent Labor government had grown fat and lazy and its pitch for a third term under a third Chief Minister was asking too much of a tired and emotional electorate.

But no-one – least of all party president Shane Stone – expected the extent of the CLP’s go-you-good-thing win.

It’s a no-brainer that electoral success in the NT lies in the baker’s-dozen-or-so of seats clustered around Darwin’s northern suburbs and CBD, the satellite city of Palmerston and nearby peri-urban centres.

The CLP took all of these bar the most left-leaning electorates, the “people’s republic” of Nightcliff and the adjoining seat of Johnston, respectively taken by the Greens and a Teal-like independent.

Elsewhere the CLP dominated in and around the small towns of Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Katherine apart from seats held by two long-term independents, one a right-leaning conservative in suburban Alice Springs, the other a senior Aboriginal man in the north-east Arnhem Land electorate of Mulka.

Labor was reduced to a rump of 4 members, all based in bush seats.

But the Federal election in May 2025 was a very different matter ...

Follow the link to read the rest of this True Territory Tale.

Country Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Australia
Australian Labor Party
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy - Northern Territory
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price
Marion Scrymgour MP
Territory Labor

Lisa Siebert & Marion Scrymgour In the 2025 Federal election the NT CLP took one step forward, two steps back … Sometimes too much of a good thing is a bad, bad thing … It was

14/07/2025

How good was racism in the ’70s and ’80s!?

A short history of bigotry in the Northern Territory.

If ever anyone tells you there was – and still isn't – no racism in the NT ... tell 'em they're dreaming!

Speaking to the NT News in October 1978, Member for Arnhem in the NT Legislative Assembly Bob Collins said that ‘The racism was always there.'..
Without naming the hotel—though noting that it was “much frequented by tourists driving into the Territory” and “a very poor introduction for tourists to the Territory” Collins revealed the content of some of the signs:

- Keep Australia Clean (Kill a C**n);

- If Abos want land they should buy the bastard the same as the whites do. They have no rights to any land whatever. If they don’t want to work under our system – let ‘em starve;

- People with black legs won’t be served; and

- Buy some C**n cheese today for catching black mice.

Read the rest at The Northern Myth here: https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2021/04/28/a-short-history-of-bigotry-in-the-northern-territory/


Daly Waters Pub
The Northern Myth
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy - Northern Territory
Marion Scrymgour MP
Chansey Paech: Member for Gwoja
Central Australian Aboriginal Congress
Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory
National NAIDOC
Victorian Naidoc

The late Andrew MacMillan once told me a story about his first trip to the Northern Territory in 1978. He’d hitched up from New South Wales, made it through the wastelands of western Queensland and was stranded at the

14/07/2025

Part 2 of my examination of the shocking mass poisoning and murder.

The murders of Nabbutta Abbott Nabarula and David Charlie at their camp in the Todd River bed remain unsolved - surely a terrible indictment of the NT's justice system and neglect of the victims and their families.

Read my analysis of the particular problems with evidence at the Coronial inquest at the link below.








Northern Territory Police Force
Bob Gosford