Gai-mariagal Festival 2024

A Celebration of the Oldest Living Culture on the Planet
26th May to 14th July 2024

Caroline Glass-Pattison


Caroline Glass-Pattison is a proud Wiradjuri, Dungutti woman, living on Gai-mariagal Country for over three decades.

An advocate of rights and social justice for Australian’s First Nations People, with an extensive professional career, Caroline has experience working within Indigenous Affairs both government and non-government systems. Caroline has followed in her Grandmother Polly Moylan-Smith’s footsteps hope for the future as a collective of First Nations Peoples, living on the same continent, to recognise our unique environments and differences of all peoples and cultures as a great source of pride.

With 20 years’ experience working in the Community Services sector, with both Local Government and Not For Profit areas in community development, Caroline has now shifted her professional focus to wellness and wholistic healing practices.

Her vision:
To hear language of ‘disadvantage’ and ‘gaps’ disappear to be replaced with resilience, survival, excellence and innovation.
“We should acknowledge our past in full, and embrace our future”.

Caroline Glass-Pattison Caroline Glass-Pattison


Our People

 Dennis Foley – Gai-mariagal man Dennis Foley – Gai-mariagal man

His matrilineal connection is Gai-mariagal of Northern Sydney, and his patrilineal connection is to the Wiradjuri people of the Turon River region.

Dennis Foley – Festival Ambassador, Elder and Knowledge Holder
Susan Moylan-Coombs

Susan Moylan-Coombs is Woolwonga Gurindji from the Northern Territory. Having lived on the Northern Beaches for over fifty years, where she has raised her family, Susan calls Gai-mariagal lands her spirit country.

Committee Chair
Caroline Glass-Pattison

Caroline Glass-Pattison is a proud Wiradjuri, Dungutti woman, living on Gai-mariagal Country for over three decades.


Committee Chair

We acknowledge the original custodians of the land, the Gai-mariagal clans of the Northern Sydney Region.  We pay our respects to the Elders past and present.