The Next Generation: The Imagination Declaration

A Declaration from the Garma Youth Forum in 2019

Hear our voices- Youth take center stage at Garma (2022)Yothu Yindi Foundation

At Garma 2019, students in the Youth Forum issued a bold statement to the Australian Prime Minister, and Education Ministers across the nation.


Known as ‘The Imagination Declaration’, it read:

Yolŋu kids having a ball at Garma (2022) by Teagan GlenaneYothu Yindi Foundation

"We ask you to imagine what’s possible.

All hands together (2019)Yothu Yindi Foundation

The future of this country lies in all of our hands. We do not want to inherit a world that is in pain. We do not want to stare down huge inequality feeling powerless to our fate.

Youth on the march at Garma (2016)Yothu Yindi Foundation

We do not want to be unarmed as we confront some of the biggest problems faced by the human race, from rising sea levels, which will lead to significant refugee challenges, to droughts & food shortages, and our own challenges around a cycle of perpetuated disadvantage.

At the Garma Youth Forum (2022)Yothu Yindi Foundation

It’s time to think differently.

At Garma Youth Forum 2019 (2019)Yothu Yindi Foundation

With 60,000 years of genius and imagination in our hearts and minds, we can be one of the groups of people that transform the future of life on earth,

Future Leader (2019)Yothu Yindi Foundation

for the good of us all.

Painting for the evening Bungul (2022) by Butter Media Pty LtdYothu Yindi Foundation

We can design the solutions that lift islands up in the face of rising seas, we can work on creative agricultural solutions that are in sync with our natural habitat, we can re-engineer schooling, we can invent new jobs and technologies, 

Hugs at Garma Youth Forum (2022) by Melanie Faith DoveYothu Yindi Foundation

and we can unite around kindness.

Acrobatic flips at Garma Youth Forum (2015)Yothu Yindi Foundation

We are not the problem,we are the solution."

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.

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