For the girls, Garma has always been there.
Their aunties Dhapanbal Yunupingu and Gayili, the daughters of Reverend Dr Gondarra OAM, have been at every festival since it began, making this their 26th year standing, dancing and speaking for their people on Yolŋu Country in northeast Arnhem Land.
"This is our place to stand strong, to dance, to speak for our people," one of the sisters said.
"It's gathering, it's family.
"For the young ones, they see his face up there ... it's special but they're excited Bluey is coming too!"
This year, under the Yolŋu theme "Bukmak" - all of us, everyone, together - the family's presence on the buŋgul ground framed a blunt message to governments from National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, Sue-Anne Hunter.
Ms Hunter told the crowd the future being debated at Garma belongs, first and foremost, to the children.
"Every conversation we have here at Garma about the future is really a conversation about our children," she said.
"If our answer does not include every child, it is not the answer."
A Wurundjeri and Ngurai Illum Wurrung woman, Ms Hunter's appointment as the first permanent, independent national commissioner was announced at Garma in 2025 and is now protected in law.
She said her job was to listen to children, carry their voices into decision-making rooms and hold systems to account when they fail.
"The problem has never been our children.
"The problem is that we keep building systems that are not yet worthy of them.
"The question is not whether our children can rise to meet the system; it is whether the system can rise to meet our children."
Ms Hunter said First Nations children were learning "in two worlds", carrying language, kinship, ceremony and Country in one hand, and classrooms and exams in the other.
She said too often schools demanded children put one down to pick up the other.
"A child learns best when their culture walks in the door with them and is treated as an asset, not a problem to be managed,." Ms Hunter said.
"Cultural safety is not a poster on a wall."
"It is not an acknowledgement read once at an assembly then forgotten."
"It is the ground that learning stands on."
On the red dust at Gulkula, that vision plays out in real time.
A Youth Forum brings together eight to 18-year-olds from visiting schools and local communities, while cultural workshops teach language, kinship, weaving, spear-making, yiḏaki and on-Country learning.
This year even Bluey goes bush, with five episodes of the hit children's show translated into Yolŋu Matha and screened at Garma Cinema.
The screenings give families and djamarrkuli, or children, a chance to say "yukurr", or hello, and grab a selfie in language.
Festival chief executive Denise Bowden said Bukmak captured what families like the Gondarras, and leaders like Ms Hunter, represent on the dance ground and in policy debates.
"The concept of Bukmak - all of us, everyone, together - has been Garma's raison d'etre since the beginning," Ms Bowden said.
"This act of coming together has taken on renewed meaning in recent years, as age-old alliances have been revived and new friendships formed."
As Rev Dr Gondarra's descendants step forward to dance beneath his portrait, Ms Hunter has promised to return to Garma every year she holds office.
She says she will tell the truth about how the nation is treating its children and whether the systems built in their name are finally worthy of them.
