The Yirrkala Bark Petitions are a series of petitions from the Yolngu people to the Commonwealth government. They are seen as the first documents that joined Indigenous Lore with Commonwealth Law as the petitions are the first traditional documents to have been recognised by the Commonwealth Parliament.
The Yolngu people are the people of Yirrkala in the Northern Territory. Yirrkala is on the east coast of the Gove peninsula in north-east Arnhem Land, 18 km south of Nhulunbuy.
The Yolngu community is made up of 13 clan groups who share Yolngu Matha as a main language, with the Clans having different dialects.
All of Arnhem Land was proclaimed as an Aboriginal reserve in 1931 and in 1935 the Methodist Church of Australasia established a mission at Yirrkala.
The Yirrkala Bark Petition. Image source: AIATSIS.
The First Petition
In 1963 on the 13th of March the Commonwealth government stole over 300 square kilometres of land from the Arnhem land reserve so that they could grant mining leases for bauxite mining – a rock with a high aluminium content. This was done without consultation with the traditional custodians and Elders were worried about the impact this would have on the land and access to their sacred sites.
Members of the Labor opposition party visited the Yolngu people and suggested that they document their worries and issues and a request for an inquiry.
There were two petitions created, one in English and one in Yolngu Matha. Both were typed up and placed on bark sheets which had been traditionally painted with the stories of the Yolngu moieties Dhuwa and Yirritja.
The petitions resulted in the Select Committee on Grievances of Yirrkala Aborigines, Arnhem Land Reserve, being established in Parliament. The committee acknowledged the rights the Yolngu people had set out and recommended to Parliament that compensation be organised, sacred sites be protected and that a committee should be set up to continue to monitor the mining projects.
Just So Stories 
Leave a comment