Barunga Festival

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Barunga is a small aboriginal community located approximately 80 kilometres southeast of Katherine, in the Northern Territory of Australia. Barunga is part of the Roper Gulf Region LGA. Since 1985 the community has held the annual Barunga Festival, usually in mid June. In 1988 at the Barunga Festival, the then Prime Minister, Bob Hawke attended the festival and was presented with two paintings and a text calling for Indigenous rights. This has become known as the Barunga Statement. In his speech Bob Hawke said there would be a treaty within the life of the current Parliament. This never happened, but in the spirit of the original intention, people still gather annually at Barunga to celebrate indigenous culture. Link to catalogue record.

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