It’s always a pleasure to be a part of the Barunga Festival where each year the community of 360 people invite the world to join them in celebration of sport, music and culture. When the festival started back in the 80’s it was a chance for people from all over the Territory to come together and these days the festival is huge and invites people from all over Australia and the world.
Barunga is an amazing community with a long history of strength and resilience marked by the Barunga Statement in 1988 calling on land rights for Aboriginal people in the NT. It is led by connected and determined Traditional Owners who have spent their lifetimes pushing for positive change for their people.
This year’s festival was pushed back to August because of COVID, which meant smaller numbers attended over the three days. Despite the smaller crowds, the work in the Bagala Community Store, owned by the Bagala Aboriginal Corporation, was frenetic.
It was a great team effort that flowed into the success of the store for this event. Firstly, AIG, who has worked alongside the Bagala Aboriginal Corporation for the past nine years, arranged for six staff and three volunteers to assist in the store (Peter, Gaileen, Alexa, Brittany, Sam, Liz, Christine, Maxine and Chris). Neil Mansell Transport kindly providing a refrigerated truck free of charge for the event, they’re a wonderful and longstanding supporter of AIG.
The local store team led by Store Manager Dee Micallef, Shimayne Lee, Cameron Jumbaililie, Truman Rankin, Maxine Bading, Aleisha Scrubby, Dodo Ranch and Stevie Brown and these guys worked tirelessly across the three days, ensuring the store was fully stocked and there was ample hot and delicious food for the hungry festival goers and athletes.
The festival is an important money earner for the store and everyone works fast to make sure there is enough food available and stock on the shelves for festival goers to buy what they need. The team this year were great and as the managers of the Bagala Community Store, we thank everyone for their effort and energy.
It was another amazing festival for the community of Barunga and AIG was proud to once again be a part of it. Next year the Barunga Festival will return to the month of June and will undoubtedly be another cracking event.
