The Yirrkala bark petitions, sent by the Yolngu people, an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

people of

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

, to the

Australian Parliament The Parliament of Australia (officially the Federal Parliament, also called the Commonwealth Parliament) is the legislature, legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch (represented by the ...

in 1963, were the first traditional documents prepared by

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

that were recognised by the Australian Parliament, and the first documentary recognition of Indigenous people in Australian law. The petitions asserted that the Yolngu people owned land over which the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

had granted mining rights to a private company,

Nabalco Nabalco, (North Australian Bauxite and Alumina Company) was a mining and extraction company set up in 1964 to exploit bauxite reserves on the Gove Peninsula, Australia. Nabalco was renamed ''Alcan Gove Pty Ltd'' in 2002. Nabalco was formed from ...

. In 1971 the court decided that the ordinances and mining leases were valid, and that the Yolngu people were not able to establish their native title at common law, in a decision known as the ''Milirrpum'' decision, or the Gove land rights case.

History

Wali Wunungmurra, one of the 12 signatories to the petitions, describes the background to the petitions as follows:

"In the late 1950s Yolngu became aware of people prospecting for minerals in the area of the
Gove Peninsula The Gove Peninsula is at the northeastern corner of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. The peninsula became strategically important during World War II when a Royal Australian Air Force base was constructed at what is now Gove ...
, and shortly after, discovered that mining leases had been taken out over a considerable area of our traditional land. Our response, in 1963, was to send a petition framed by painted bark to the Commonwealth Government demanding that our rights be recognised."

Five brothers of the

Rirratjingu The Dangu (Dhaŋu, Dhangu) are an Aboriginal Australian people of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory, one of many Yolŋu peoples. They are, according to Norman Tindale, to be carefully distinguished from the Djaŋu. Two prominent clans of ...

clan,

Mawalan Marika Mawalan Marika (1908–1967), often referred to as Mawalan 1 Marika to distinguish from Mawalan 2 Marika, was an Aboriginal Australian artist and the leader of the Rirratjingu clan of the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land, in the Nort ...

Mathaman Marika Mathaman Marika (1920–1970) was an Aboriginal Australian artist and Indigenous rights activist. He was a member of the Rirratjingu clan of the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, and one of the well-known Mari ...

, Milirrpum Marika, Dhunggala Marika and Dadaynga "Roy" Marika led the thirteen clans, being

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

of the land in question.

Wandjuk Marika Wandjuk Djuwakan Marika OBE (1927 or 1930 – 16 June 1987), was an Aboriginal Australian painter, actor, composer and Indigenous land rights activist. He was a member of the Rirratjingu clan of the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land in ...

(son of Mawalan) helped to draft the bark petitions, which were sent to the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

, where they were tabled on 14 and 28 August 1963. The petitions were written in the Yolngu language, together with an English translation. They are on permanent display at Parliament House, Canberra, along with a

digging stick A digging stick, sometimes called a yam stick, is a wooden implement used primarily by subsistence-based cultures to dig out underground food such as roots and tubers, tilling the soil, or burrowing animals and anthills. It is a term used in ar ...

known as the

Djang'kawu The Djang'kawu, also spelt Djanggawul or Djan'kawu, are creator being, creation ancestors in the mythology of the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is one of the most important stories in Aboriginal Austra ...

digging stick, associated with the

creation story A creation myth (or cosmogonic myth) is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it., "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop ...

of the Yolngu people. The bark petitions asserted that the Yolngu people owned the land and protested the Commonwealth's granting of mining rights to

of land excised from the Arnhem Aboriginal Land reserve. The son of one of the Yirrkala plaintiffs, a Gumatj clan leader, Munggurrawuy, was

Galarrwuy Yunupingu Galarrwuy Yunupingu (born 30 June 1948), also known as James Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Dr Yunupingu, is a leader in the Aboriginal Australian community, and has been involved in the fight for Indigenous land rights in Australia throughout his c ...

who assisted in drafting the petitions. The petitions stated that "the land in question has been hunting and food gathering land for the Yirrkala tribes from time immemorial" and "that places sacred to the Yirrkala people, as well as vital to their livelihood are in the excised land". They expressed the petitioners' "fear that their needs and interests will be completely ignored as they have been ignored in the past". The petitions called on the House of Representatives to "appoint a Committee, accompanied by competent interpreters, to hear the views of the people of Yirrkala before permitting the excision" of the land for the mine and to ensure "that no arrangements be entered into with any company which will destroy the livelihood and independence of the Yirrkala people". Thus, the petitions are the first formal assertion of

native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...

. The Australian Government's response was to establish the House of Representatives Select Committee on Grievances of the Yirrkala Aborigines, Arnhem Land Reserve in 1963. In its report, the Select Committee recommended that the Yirrkala people should be compensated for loss of their traditional occupancy, by way of (1) land grant; (2) payment of at least the first received in mining royalties; and (3) direct monetary compensation, even though Aboriginal land rights were not expressly recognised under Northern Territory laws. However, the recommendations of the House of Representatives Select Committee regarding compensation payments were ignored in the ''Mining (Gove Peninsula Nabalco Agreement) Ordinance 1968'' (NT), which unilaterally revoked part of the Yirrkala Aboriginal reserve in order to enable Nabalco to develop the mine. The Aboriginal clans whose traditional lands were affected by the Gove project were so strongly opposed to the making of the ''Mining (Gove Peninsula Nabalco Agreement) Ordinance 1968'' that they challenged it in the

Supreme Court of the Northern Territory The Supreme Court of the Northern Territory is the superior court for the Australian Territory of the Northern Territory. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the territory in civil matters, and hears the most serious criminal matters. It is aro ...

in 1968 in ''

Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd ''Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd'', also known as the Gove land rights case because its subject was land known as the Gove Peninsula in the Northern Territory, was the first litigation on native title in Australia, and the first significant lega ...

'' (the "Gove land rights case"). In 1971 Justice Richard Blackburn held that the ordinances and mining leases were valid and that the Yolngu people were not able to establish their native title at

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...

. Justice Blackburn stated that the "doctrine of communal native title does not form and never has formed, part of the law of any part of Australia". The ''Milirrpum'' decision had wide-ranging impacts on relations between Aboriginal people and the mining industry generally throughout Australia. In response to the ''Milirrpum'' decision, in 1973 the Whitlam government established the

Aboriginal Land Rights Commission The Aboriginal Land Rights Commission, also known as the Woodward Royal Commission, was a Royal Commission that existed from 1973 to 1974 with the purpose to inquire into appropriate ways to recognise Aboriginal land rights in the Northern Terr ...

, headed by Justice

Edward Woodward Edward Albert Arthur Woodward, OBE (1 June 1930 – 16 November 2009) was an English actor and singer. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he began his career on stage. Throughout his career, he appeared in productions ...

, to inquire into "the appropriate means to recognise and establish the traditional rights and interests of the Aborigines in and in relation to the land, and to satisfy in other ways the reasonable aspirations of the Aborigines to rights in or in relation to land".Justice Woodward
"Aboriginal Land Rights Commission, First Report"
Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1973 at p iii.

Significance

The 1963 Yirrkala petitions were the first traditional documents prepared by Indigenous Australians recognised by the Australian Parliament, and are the first documentary recognition of Indigenous people in Australian law.

References

{{Reflist

External links

National Archives of Australia - Yirrkala bark petitions 1963 (Cth)

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies - Yirrkala bark petitions 1963
Aboriginal land rights in Australia History of Indigenous Australians Yolngu Australian Indigenous law

History

Significance

See also

References

External links