Yirrkala

There has been an Aboriginal community at Yirrkala throughout recorded history, but the community increased enormously in size when Yirrkala mission was founded in 1935.

The settlement was funded as an outstation during the 1980s.[4]

At the 2006 census, Yirrkala had a population of 687.[5]

As of 2020 the East Arnhem Regional Council is the local government for Yirrkala, which is in the Council’s Gumurr Miwatj Ward. It consults with Yirrkala Mala Leaders Association, consisting of 12 elected community members.[6]

The Northern Land Council is the land council to the community, responsible for matters under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.[6]

In the 2016 census, Yirrkala had a population of 809 people, of whom 83.1% identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.[3]

A woodcarving of Nureri the fire ancestor collected at Yirrkala

A woodcarving of female spirit collected at Yirrkala

Yirrkala is home to a number of leading Indigenous artists, whose traditional Aboriginal art, particularly bark painting, can be found in art galleries around the world, and whose work frequently wins awards such as the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.[7] Their work is available to the public from the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre and Museum[8] and also from the YBE art centre. Pioneer bark painters from this region the National Museum of Australia consider old masters include Mithinarri Gurruwiwi, Birrikitji Gumana and Mawalan Marika.[9][10]

It is also a traditional home of the Yidaki (didgeridoo), and some of the world's finest didgeridoos are still made at Yirrkala.

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.[14]

One of the Wurrwurrwuy stone arrangements

Yirrkala has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

• Wurrwurrwuy stone arrangements[15]

• Roy Marika (1925–93), councillor and artist
• Wandjuk Marika (1927–1987), artist, actor, Indigenous rights activist
• Nonggirrnga Marawili (c.1938), painter
• Nyapanyapa Yunupingu (c.1945), painter
• Galarrwuy Yunupingu (1948–), land rights activist and Chair, Northern Land Council
• Gatjil Djerrkura (1949–2004), ceremonial leader
• Banduk Marika (born 1954), artist
• Mandawuy Yunupingu (1956–2013), musician and educator
• Raymattja Marika (c.1959–2008), scholar, educator, linguist and cultural advocate
• Yothu Yindi (1986–2000), rock band
• Nathan Djerrkura (1988–), Australian rules footballer
• Maminydjama Maymuru (1997–), model
• Timmy Burarrwanga, businessman and cultural leader

• "Yirrkala". PastMasters.