Yirrkala bark petitions

The Yirrkala bark petitions, sent by the Yolngu people, an Aboriginal Australian people of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, to the Australian Parliament in 1963, were the first traditional documents prepared by Indigenous Australians 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 had granted mining rights to a private company, Nabalco. 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. 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, 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 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, which were sent to the Australian House of Representatives, 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 known as the Djang'kawu digging stick, associated with the creation story of the Yolngu people. The bark petitions asserted that the Yolngu people owned the land and protested the Commonwealth Government's granting of mining rights to Nabalco of land excised from the Arnhem Aboriginal Land reserve.