Aboriginal leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu has told the federal government it must face up to the fact the colonisation of Australia was wrong and illegal and more land should be handed back to traditional owners.
Dr Yunupingu, a 70-year-old land rights activist and leader of the Gumatj clan of the Yolngu people, opened the 20th Garma Festival in East Arnhem Land, where he made the remarks, on Friday.
The Dilak Authority representing the Yolngu people had agreed this week to tell the government Australia's colonisation was wrong and it endorsed last year's Uluru statement calling for an Aboriginal voice in parliament through an independent indigenous advisory body.
Members of the Yolngu people from north-eastern Arnhem Land perform the Bunggul traditional dance during the Garma Festival near Nhulunbuy, East Arnhem Land. Source: AAP
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull rejected the voice in parliament proposal as undemocratic only weeks after attending Garma last year but a parliamentary committee consisting of coalition and opposition MPs put it back on the agenda in a report last week.
"We are in the mood for asking the government these questions: do they really own the dugongs, do they really own the turtles do they really own the birds," Dr Yunupingu told a crowd including Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion.
"These were terrible things that happened.
"Now that Aborigines have risen on today, what we are doing now is fronting up to government.
"Dilak met and agreed to tell the government this was wrong, Captain Phillip was wrong, it was a wrong law and wrong takeover and it must be given back to the landowners."
Northern Territory and Labor Indigenous Senator Malarndirri McCarthy said the momentum to guarantee an Aboriginal voice in the Australian parliament will be a key theme at this weekend's Garma Festival.
"(The Prime Minister's) own colleagues on this parliamentary committee have said well it should actually be on because that is the evidence we've received from over 380 submissions and oral evidence given to the committee," she told AAP.
Garma is held by the Yothu Yindi Foundation in East Arnhem Land and is one of the most significant Aboriginal festivals with 2500 people expected to attend.
Award-winning author Richard Flanagan will be a guest speaker.
