NITV and SBS to showcase the cultures, conversation and ceremony of the Garma Festival 2022

Across four days, from Friday 29 July to Monday 1 August, NITV together with SBS is expanding its offering in 2022 and sharing the Garma experience with all Australians.

In addition to daily live coverage, updates and highlights across NITV’s platforms, SBS is also reporting from the festival in languages including Arabic and Mandarin, connecting Australia’s multicultural and multilingual communities with First Nations cultures and perspectives.

SBS Director of Indigenous Content, Tanya Denning-Orman, said it’s great to be expanding coverage of this important event across the SBS network.

“We’re excited to be bringing the powerful stories and important moments from Garma to audiences across Australia. At the heart of our coverage is NITV, providing a front row seat to the key events and ceremony, with updates and highlights covering the big issues and cultural celebrations of the day across SBS. For the first time, this includes on-the-ground reporting from SBS in Arabic and Mandarin for TV, radio and digital, among the multilingual coverage that will feature across the network.

“Garma provides an important stage and moment for discussion about the challenges impacting First Nations communities that we face as a nation, underpinned by tens of thousands of years of cultural tradition, knowledge and practice of the Yolŋu peoples. From the daily dialogue to the beautiful Buŋgul – the traditional Yolŋu ceremony each afternoon – we have a special opportunity with NITV and across SBS to share this unique celebration of First Nations cultures, achievements and determination with all Australians through our coverage.”

Four days of comprehensive coverage will kick off on NITV tomorrow afternoon with a special edition of NITV News Nula, presented by Natalie Ahmat, live from Garma from 3pm (AEDT)*, and simulcast on SBS. Then at 4.30pm, NITV will bring the sounds, speeches and culture of the Garma Opening Ceremony 2022 live.

Over the weekend on Saturday and Sunday, NITV will present the highlights from across the festival each day at 5.30pm with Garma 2022,presented by Natalie Ahmat and The Point’s John-Paul Janke, followed by Garma Buŋgul 2022 at 6.30pm each night – a one-hour special package showcasing the graceful movement of the women and the strong songs of the men at the Buŋgul, the Yolŋu cultural ceremony with over 60,000 years of connection to Country, which takes place each afternoon of the festival. 

Wrapping up the four-day event coverage on Monday afternoon, NITV will present a final Garma 2022 highlights program from 5.30pm (encored on SBS the following day at 2pm and 11.40pm). NITV programs from across the festival will also be available to stream live on SBS On Demand, and for catch up.

Across NITV’s digital coverage and social media, audiences can stay up to date with all the festival’s events each day as it happens with a live blog on sbs.com.au/nitv, regular updates, insights and moments shared on NITV’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and the daily Buŋgul each afternoon streamed live on NITV Facebook. 

There’ll also be coverage and crosses into SBS World News each evening, in addition to SBS’s television news bulletins in Arabic and Mandarin – SBS عربي News and SBS 中文 News – from SBS’s multilingual reporters on the ground who will also deliver coverage including live reports, articles and podcasts in Arabic, Cantonese, French, and Mandarin for SBS Radio and language services. 

The Garma Festival is a celebration of the cultural, artistic and ceremonial traditions of the Yolŋu people. Held annually – but delayed since 2019 due to the pandemic – it brings together community, business and political leaders, academics and journalists to discuss critical issues facing the future of Australia. NITV is proud to once again partner with the Yothu Yindi Foundation as a Media Supporter, continuing a long relationship which has seen NITV provide its distinctive coverage of the event from a First Nations perspective since 2015.

For more information on NITV and SBS’s coverage from Garma, visit the NITV website, and follow NITV on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

For a PDF version of this media release, click here.