One of Australia’s most important sovereign documents from the fight for Aboriginal land rights has been returned to the people of Arnhem Land, after going “missing” in the Kimberley for decades.
Key points:
There were four bark petitions created in the 1960s, all sent to Canberra in protest of mining
One of the petitions eventually ended up in a home in the Kimberley, where it hung for decades
The petition has now finally been repatriated to Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land
The bark petitions were created by Yolŋu elders of north-east Arnhem Land in the 1960s to protest the encroachment of bauxite mining onto their land on the Gove Peninsula without consultation.
The documents were landmark in their combination of traditional Yolŋu bark art and typed petitions to show that the 13 clans of the peninsula had never ceded their land, despite the arrival of mining.
On Thursday, the petition was finally returned to the people of Yirrkala, in the remote NT, and was danced to a position of prominence in famed Arnhem Land gallery, Buku-Larnŋgay Mulka.
Daughter of the petition's sole surviving signatory, Yananymul Mununggurr, described it as a "lost treasure" and said its return was "very, very important for this community and for my people".
"It's important as it demonstrates the power that the Yolŋu people, our forefathers, had when they did the bark petitions," Ms Mununggurr said.
"It's important for all the people to come together and reconcile in unity, and also to think back, way back to the 1960s, about how our forefathers came together as one, with one mind, one voice.
"The good fight is not over, you know, we are still fighting."
The clan elders of the 1960s were left repeatedly disappointed, as in spite of their protests – both through the bark petitions and a battle in the courtroom – mining continued unabated on their land.
The bark petition repatriated to Yirrkala on Thursday is one of four created in the 1960s, which were all sent to politicians in Canberra, including then-prime minister Robert Menzies.
Ms Mununggurr said those petitions which remain in Canberra are "something that can remind our government, the government of the day" about the ongoing fight of the Yolŋu people.
"Governments come in and out, all the time, new people they come and go," she said.
"It's a reminder for politicians that there is a voice in there.
"The voice of our forefathers from east Arnhem Land, Yirrkala, telling them that we are here, the Yolŋu people are here, and it's what they said for the future."
No members of either the federal or NT government attended Thursday's repatriation ceremony, however the Independent local member for Mulka, Yiŋiya Guyula, was there.
Petition tracked down by history professor in the Kimberley
The return of the fourth bark petition to Yirrkala came about after a "eureka moment" by La Trobe University history professor Clare Wright, who had been researching a book about the petitions.
"I'd been writing this story and along the journey, I was able to locate this fourth petition, which has been missing to the Yolŋu people for 60 years," Professor Wright said.
The petition had been gifted to the former secretary for the Federal Council of Aboriginal Advancement, Stan Davey, and for many years it had hung on his wife Joan McKie's wall in the far north of Western Australia.
"As a gift to Stan for his commitment to the Yolŋu people, he was given one of these petitions, it hung on his wall, and then his wife's wall when they separated," she said.
"She took it around Australia … and eventually to the Kimberley, where she made her home.
"And that's where I found the petition, in the Kimberley, in Derby.
"She doesn't call it the missing bark petition, because she knew where it was all the time."
Rirratjiŋu clan elder Witiyana Marika said his family had been awaiting the return of the petition for decades and thought it had been forever lost to the world.
"It is a testament to the elders, their wisdom and insights into Yolŋu affairs, and we are very happy that one of the bark petitions has come back home," he said.
Six decades on, the Yolŋu are continuing to fight against the arrival of mining onto their land without consultation through the courts, however, the Commonwealth is now challenging their claim.
A rare hearing of the High Court in Darwin is scheduled to take place next August into the matter.