Garma Festival dance honors kookaburra heritage

Eighteen‑year‑old dancer Cleo Doyle performed a five‑minute piece at the Garma Festival in Gulkula, Arnhem Land, using the distinctive kookaburra call as a symbol of family, love and ancestral guidance. Doyle said the call represents her "pop," a Kamilaroi man whose life spanned the Stolen Generations, and she interprets the bird’s laugh as a “call of love.”

The performance, created through the National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association, was part of the festival’s broader program of cultural workshops, ceremonial dances and policy forums that address truth‑telling, treaty and First Nations futures. Doyle, a first‑year NAISDA student from Darkinjung Country, described the opportunity as a “once‑in‑a‑lifetime” chance to share her story on Country, highlighting the ongoing connection between Indigenous ancestors and the kookaburra’s presence in the Australian bush.