Yolngu Power: The Art of Yirrkala

From the Mother Tongue Shapeshifting & Reclaiming collection. 

"In Yirrkala, at the far eastern tip of Arnhem Land, Yolngu people have carried forward ancient knowledge through story, song, and ceremony. Oral histories and songlines map land, sea, and sky. Their Dreaming stories (Wangarr) are not myths. They are living law, moral code, and the universe itself.

This is one of the world’s oldest continuous cultures. Excavations show Yolngu ancestors arrived more than 60,000 years ago — and have maintained cultural continuity ever since. In March 1963, the Australian Government announced it would carve away part of the Arnhem Land Aboriginal Reserve. Yolngu land on the Gove Peninsula would be taken for aluminium mining. The people were not asked.

In a unique and powerful protest, the Yolngu elders with the help of Methodist missionary, created the (now famous) Yirrkala Bark Petitions. Two typed petitions, on sheets of tree bark, painted with ochre. They showed law, land, and memory stretching back ‘from time immemorial.’

These petitions were the first Indigenous documents ever recognised by the Australian Parliament. Mining still went ahead. But the petitions lit a fire. They sparked a historic national movement for Aboriginal land rights. For the Yolngu, everything is connected. People, place, song, and law are one. The Bark Petitions were more than politics. They were sacred art. They were defiance. They were diplomacy.

This was a peaceful assertion of sovereignty, expressed in silence. It showed that power that can be quiet. And that justice can be beautiful." - Emma Cantwell 

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The Mother Tongue Library is a love letter to the thinkers, writers, and artists who’ve given us the language of courage when we needed it most.