Dhunggala Munungurr (left) sole surviving signatory of the petitions and (on right), a ceremony at which the fourth petition was returned to Yolŋu descendants of their original creators.
Photos: Clare Wright, National Gallery of Australia
Clare Wright has spent ten years researching the history of these groundbreaking petitions. Though few Australians have heard of them, she writes, we can learn much from the story of their creation.
Jacob Junior Nayinggul (left) and Simon Baker in High Ground (2020).
Maxo, Bunya Productions, Savage Films
In depicting brutal massacres and mission life, this film gets a lot right. And the model for its central protagonist may well be a young man called Narlim, exiled from his country in the late 1930s.
Yolngu boys from north-eastern Arnhem Land perform the Bunggul traditional dance during the Garma Festival in 2018. The Yolngu have flourished for up to 50,000 years.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
The music of Dr G. Yunupiŋu, who has died at just 46, draws strength and inspiration from Manikay, the sacred song tradition performed by the Yolŋu when conducting public ceremonies.
Yidaki, maker unknown. Collected from Milingimbi by Charles Mountford.
courtesy of South Australian Museum.
The yidaki, a musical instrument owned by the Yolngu people of North East Arnhem Land, is created by both termites and instrument makers, who tap trees to find hollow logs. A new exhibition tells its fascinating story.