The Yirrkala bark petitions (Yolngu: Näku Dhäruk) are a set of four petitions prepared by leaders of the Yolngu people, an Aboriginal Australian people of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, of which two were presented in the Australian Parliament in August 1963. The petitions asserted that the Yolngu people owned the land around Yirrkala on the Gove Peninsula, after discovering that the federal government had granted mining rights to a series of private mining companies since the late 1950s, and claims were being staked out in 1963 by Gove Bauxite Corporation. They were supported by Yirrkala mission superintendent Edgar Wells and his wife Annie, along with various Aboriginal rights activists and politicians, including Kim Beazley Sr. and Gordon Bryant. The petitions were successful in that they instigated the establishment of a government committee to look into their grievances, but ultimately, the mining went ahead.
After a group of Yolngu people took the government to court in 1968 over the matter, 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. However, the actions of the people in presenting the bark petitions eventually led to the recognition of Indigenous rights in Commonwealth law.
The petitions are significant as political art, following the Yirrkala Church Panels a few months earlier, and were the first traditional documents prepared by Indigenous Australians recognised by the Australian Parliament. The acceptance by Parliament of the traditional form of bark painting juxtaposed with European-style text typed on paper marked the tacit acknowledgement of the existence of Yolngu law. They have been likened to England's Magna Carta of 1215, setting out the rights of Indigenous peoples in Australia.
Background and overview The Commonwealth Government administered the Northern Territory from World War II until the passing of the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978. In 1952, after geological exploration was carried out on the Gove Peninsula, discovering large deposits of bauxite, Territories Minister Paul Hasluck announced a change in policy, "to extract the mineral wealth of the Territory". In 1958, the Commonwealth Aluminium Corporation (Comalco) was issued a mining lease (SML1) to prospect land at Melville Bay adjacent to Yirrkala mission. In 1960, the mining lease had been transferred to the British Aluminium Company. Hasluck granted additional prospecting rights to Duval Holdings, which then brought in French company Pechiney, which created an Australian subsidiary, who were granted three new leases (SML1, 2, & 3) to the area around the mission, encroaching on its land. In 1962 Samuel Benson Dickinson had been appointed field manager of the subsidiary, called Gove Bauxite Corporation (later renamed GOMINCO), and advocated a "vigorous mineral development policy". He had begun staking out an area for exploration, announcing plans to set up mining headquarters at Gunipinya, near the mission. Gunipinya was the site of a freshwater spring, and a sacred site.
On 13 March 1963, the government excised over of land from the Aboriginal reserve on Arnhem Land, in order to mine bauxite that had been discovered there. After GOMINCO started staking out its claims around the Yirrkala mission, which was run by superintendent Edgar Wells, along with his wife Ann, the extent of the development was challenged by the traditional owners of the land, the Gumatj and Rirratjiŋu clans of Yolngu peoples, as they had not been consulted. Wali Wunungmurra (Wawunggmarra), one of the 12 signatories to the petitions, said that the Yolngu became aware of people prospecting for minerals in the Gove Peninsula area in the late 1950s, later discovering that mining leases had been taken out over "a considerable area of our traditional land".
The people of Yirrkala mission, which was run by the Methodist Overseas Mission, created the Yirrkala Church Panels in March 1963. These were pieces of political art in which they stated their claim to the land around them, which were mounted in the new church at Yirrkala ready for its opening on 23 June 1963.
Edgar Wells persuaded Dickinson to attend a meeting with around 60 Yolngu people, along with his French colleague Silve. Further meetings with Dickinson ensued, but the matter was not resolved. On 16 July 1963, Labor politicians Gordon Bryant (from Victoria) Kim Beazley Sr. (from Western Australia) visited Yirrkala, sponsored by the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement. John Jago had alerted him – too late – to the fact that that public notices had been placed in the NT News on 22 June by Dickinson on behalf of the mining company, "in language incomprehensible to anyone but a surveyor". The cut-off date for objections was 19 July, with the application hearing scheduled for 16 August.
The idea of a painted bark petition was suggested by Beazley, after Ann Wells had typed up a letter created by a Wandjuk Marika and other literate members of the mission. Five brothers of the Rirratjiŋu clan, Mawalan Marika, Mathaman Marika, Milirrpum Marika, Dhunggala Marika, and Dadaynga "Roy" Marika led the thirteen clans, being traditional owners of the land in question. Wandjuk Marika (son of Mawalan) helped to draft the bark petitions, of which two of the four original petitions, which were signed by nine men and three women, were sent to the Australian House of Representatives. The petitions were written in a standardised Yolngu script developed by the missionary Beulah Lowe, based on Yolngu Matha languages, together with an English translation. They were tabled on 14 August and 28 August 1963.
They are called bark petitions because, although typed on paper, they were framed by traditional bark paintings. The typing was done on a Remington typewriter by author Ann E. Wells, wife of Rev. Edgar Wells, who was superintendent of the Yirrkala Methodist Mission at the time. Supporters included by Ron Croxford, head of Yirrkala School, his wife Margaret, who taught there, as well as Edgar and Ann Wells, and MPs Gordon Bryant and Kim Beazley Sr. Galarrwuy Yunupingu (1948–2023), son of Mungurrawuy, was a teenager at the time, but could speak several Yolngu languages as well as English fluently. In 2020, in the process of researching for her 2024 book Näku Dhäruk: The Bark Petitions: How the People of Yirrkala Changed the course of Australian democracy, historian Clare Wright was told by Galarrwuy that the Yolngu name for the documents was Näku Dhäruk. Näku (pronounced "nah-koo") refers to the bark of a particular species of stringybark tree, known as Gadayka. Dhäruk (pronounced "dah-rook"), means "the word" or "message".
The petitions: content and people The bark petitions asserted that the Yolngu people owned the land and protested the Commonwealth Government's granting of mining rights to Gove Bauxite Corporation of land excised from the Arnhem Aboriginal Land reserve. The paintings on bark were designed to frame the petitions, and not simply decorative, but a frame of reference; "like the Church Panels, a public assertion of Yolngu ideology and spirituality". The barks were painted in the church overnight. Ann Wells made notes about everything related to the petitions.
Painters Those who assisted in painting the designs on the bark on which the petitions were mounted were chosen by consensus, the "right way", the Yolngu political process. The four painters were : Narritjin Maymuru (Mangalili / Yirritja, aged 41) Yanggarriny Wunungmurra (Dawlangu / Yirritja, 31) Mutitjpuy Mununggurr (Djapu / Dhuwa, 31) Rrikin (Gumatch / Yirritja, 31), known for his singing, dancing, mime, and mastery of the yidaki
The first three had also been selected to paint the church panels.
Words and signatories Each petition has the same words, written first in English and then one of the Yolngu Matha languages. The text of the Bark Petitions is available online. It begins by explaining that around 500 people are residents of the land which has been excised for mining without proper explanation or consultation with the residents. It goes on to explain the importance of their land, and finishes, in the final two points, with two requests:
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, or Indigenous land rights in Australia. What is conveyed by the artists in the drawings is equally significant to the words, expressing their long association with the land, and their laws which originated during creation, or wangarr. The designs are "an interface between the ground, its spiritual essence, and specific groups of people".
The first petition was signed by 12 people at the mission (those who were able to write). The petitioners had to be able to sign their names, and had to have the correct authority to sign for the other Yolngu people. Those selected to sign were: See this page for thesis details. Milirrpum (at age 36, the eldest signatory; brother of Mawalan and Roy Dayanga), representing the Rirratjiŋu clan Djalaliŋba Manunu, aged 27, a Gumatj man raised by Mungurrawuy Larrakan (24), a Gumatj woman of the Yirritja moiety, daughter of Watjung (Church Panels painter); worked in the home of teacher Ron Croxford and his wife Marg Raiyin(i) (24), Larrakan's brother (Yirritja) Daymbalipu (29), Djapu man, Dhuwa; worked with teacher Ron Croxford as a teaching assistant Dundiwuy Wanambi (27) Dhuŋgala (23), brother of Daymbalipu; apprentice builder, who helped build the new church Djayila (29), Djapu man, husband of Larrakan Manunu (21), Dhalwangu woman, Yirritja, who had completed her education at the mission school Nyabilingu (26), daughter of Nanyin Maymuru Yirritja, niece of Narritjin (Church Panels painter) Wulanybuma Wununggumurra (18), Dhalwangu man, brother of Manunu Wawunggmarra (18), brother of Nyabilingu
The brothers Daymbalipu and Dhuŋgala were the sons of Dhangatji, but were both raised by the warrior-leader and artist Wonggu. They were from Caledon Bay area, but became integral to the life of the mission.
Dundiwuy Wanambi (born 1936) later worked with ethnographic filmmaker Ian Dunlop on the Yirrkala Film Project, a series of 11 films about the Yolngu people. He was the paternal uncle of artist Wukun Wanambi, and therefore his classificatory "father".
Dhuŋgala Munuŋgurr, an artist was the last surviving signatory to the bark petition, and in 2022 was the recipient of a Yothu Yindi Foundation Garma Festival Yolngu hero award. He died in March 2024.
Presentation to Parliament Preparation The four petitions were wrapped carefully by Ann Edgar, addressed to Prime Minister Robert Menzies, Leader of the Opposition A. A. Calwell, Gordon Bryant, and Kim Beazley, and put on the mail plane, with postage paid out of her own money. Beazley confirmed arrival on 29 July, and suggested that they be presented by Jock Nelson and Ken Waters, an independent Legislative Council member for Arnhem Land.
Presentations