bebejan was involved in the yirrkala bark petition.
who was involved in the yirrkala bark petition?
bebejan
the yolngu people of yirrkala sent the bark petitions 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.









































the bark petitions asserted that the yolngu people owned the land and protested the commonwealth's granting of mining rights to nabalco of land excised from the arnhem aboriginal land reserve. the son of one of the yirrkala plaintiffs, a gumatj clan leader, munggurrawuy, was galarrwuy yunupingu who assisted in drafting the petitions.
yirrkala bark petitions
yirrkala played a pivotal role in the development of the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous australians when the document bark petition was created at yirrkala in 1963 and sent to the federal government to protest at the prime minister's announcement that a parcel of their land was to be sold to a bauxite mining company. although the petition itself was unsuccessful in the sense that the bauxite mining at nhulunbuy went ahead as planned, it alerted non-indigenous australians to the need for indigenous representation in such decisions, and prompted a government report recommending payment of compensation, protection of sacred sites, creation of a permanent parliamentary standing committee to scrutinise developments at yirrkala, and also acknowledged the indigenous people's moral right to their lands. the bark petition is on display in the parliament house in canberra.
yirrkala