1 May 2025

Welcome to

Gai-mariagal Festival 2025

Theme: Legacies for Future Generations

In 2025, we gather once again on the ancient and sacred lands of the Gai-mariagal. We recognise the original and contemporary custodians who have cared for this Country with wisdom, resilience, and deep love for over tens of thousands of years.
This year's Festival, Legacies for Future Generations, comes at a critical time.
In the wake of recent events that have shaken and illuminated our national consciousness, we stand together to call for a powerful reset of our relationships — with each other, with Country, and with truth.

The Festival logo of the three fish holds deep meaning.

The fish symbolises our shared responsibility to care for the environment — the land, the water, and the sky world. It reminds us that it is our  responsibility to protect Country wherever we live, work, and play, and to honour the creatures we share this place with.

The three fish also represent the sacred trinity: the spiritual world, the human world, and the physical world. In this region of Northern Sydney, where fish swim in both sweet and salt waters, they speak to a deep connection to identity — as sweet water people, bitter water people, and saltwater people.

Water is life.
It nourishes plants, animals, and human beings. It is sacred. Protecting water sources — our rivers, our oceans, our creeks — is a sacred responsibility we hold for all future generations. It is part of our legacy to care for all that lives on Mother Earth.

For too long, the true history of this continent has been silenced, sanitised, and ignored. The stories of dispossession, survival, resistance, and strength must no longer be whispered on the margins. They must be heard, acknowledged, and acted upon. Healing begins with truth. Justice begins with truth. Real relationships begin with truth.

This Festival is not just a celebration; it is an invitation to every person who calls this place home. An invitation to step into a future built on honesty, respect, and responsibility. A call to honour the enduring spirit of First Nations peoples, to listen with open hearts, and to actively contribute to creating legacies of cultural strength, justice, and unity.

Now is the time to move beyond empty gestures. Now is the time to build structures and systems that reflect the richness, the Lore, the ecological knowledge, the social and emotional wellbeing frameworks, and the sacred responsibilities our Ancestors have carried since the first sunrise.

As we walk forward together, let us ask ourselves:

· What legacies are we creating through our actions today?
· How will we be remembered by the generations who come after us?
· Will we be known as the ones who chose courage over comfort, truth over convenience, future over fear?

The Gai-mariagal Festival 2025 calls each of us to be Legacy Builders — to plant seeds of truth, sovereignty, connection, and hope into the soil of this place we now call home.

This is our time.
This is our responsibility.
This is our legacy.

In the spirit of Country.
In the spirit of Truth.
In the spirit of all Future Generations.


Susan & Caroline




To find out what events are happening locally visit the website:
https://gai-mariagalfestival.com.au/events-2025.html
 

Caroline Glass-Pattison and Susan Moylan-Coombs
Co-Chairs, Gai-mariagal Festival Committee