Yolngu

As with nearly all Aboriginal groups, avoidance relationships exist in Yolngu culture between certain relations. The two main avoidance relationships are:

son-in-law – mother-in-law

brother – sister

Brother–sister avoidance, called mirriri, normally begins after initiation. In avoidance relationships, people do not speak directly or look at one another, and try to avoid being in too close proximity with each other. People are avoided, but respected.

The word for "law" in Yolgnu is rom,[16] and there are particular ceremonies associated with Rom, known as Rom ceremony.[17] The complete system of Yolngu customary law is known as Ngarra,[18] or as the Maḏayin[19] (also written madayan[20] and Mardiyhin[21]). Maḏayin embodies the rights of the owners of the law, or citizens (rom watangu walal) who have the rights and responsibilities for this embodiment of law. Maḏayin includes all the people's law (rom); the instruments and objects that encode and symbolise the law (Maḏayin girri); oral dictates; names and song cycles; and the holy, restricted places (dhuyu ṉuŋgat wäŋa) that are used in the maintenance, education and development of law. Galarrwuy Yunupingu has described Rom watangu as the overarching law of the land, which is "lasting and alive... my backbone".[22] This law covers the ownership of land and waters, the resources on or within these lands and waters.[23] It regulates and controls production and trade and the moral, social and religious law including laws for the conservation and the farming of plants and aquatic life.

Yolŋu believe that living out their life according to Maḏayin is right and civilised. The Maḏayin creates a state of Magaya, which is a state of peace, freedom from hostilities and true justice for all.[24]

The story of Barnumbirr (Morning Star), depicting the first death in the Dreamtime, is the beginning of Maḏayin, the cycle of life and death.[21]

Raŋga is a name for sacred objects or emblems used in ceremony.[25][26]

The concept of Wangarr is complex. Attempts to translate the term into English have called the Wangarr beings variously "spirit man/woman", "ancestor", "totem", or various combinations. The Yolngu believe that the Wangarr ancestor-beings not only hunted, gathered food and held ceremonies as the Yolngu do today, but also that they created plants and geographical features such as rivers, rocks, sandhills and islands, and these features now incorporate the essence of the Wangarr. They also named species of plant and animal, and made these sacred to the local clan; some Wangarr took on the characteristics of a species, which then became the totem of the clan. Sacred objects and certain designs are also associated with certain Wangarr, who also gave that clan their language, law, paintings, songs, dances, ceremonies and creation stories.[27]

Yolŋu engaged in extensive trade annually with Macassan fishermen at least two centuries before contact with Europeans. They made yearly visits to harvest trepang and pearls, paying Yolŋu in kind with goods such as knives, metal, canoes, tobacco and pipes. In 1906, the South Australian Government did not renew the Macassans' permit to harvest trepang, and the disruption caused economic losses for the regional Yolŋu economy.

Yolŋu oral histories and the Djanggawul myths preserve accounts of a Baijini people, who are said to have preceded the Macassans. These Baijini have been variously interpreted by modern researchers as a different group of (presumably, Southeast Asian) visitors to Australia who may have visited Arnhem Land before the Macassans,[28] as a mythological reflection of the experiences of some Yolŋu people who have travelled to Sulawesi with the Macassans and came back,[29] or perhaps as traders from China.[30]

Yolŋu also had well-established trade routes within Australia, extending to Central Australian clans and other Aboriginal countries. They did not manufacture boomerangs themselves but obtained these via trade from Central Australia.[31] This contact was maintained through use of message sticks, as well as mailmen – with some men walking several hundred kilometres in their work to send messages and relay orders between tribes.

Yolŋu had known about Europeans before the arrival of British in Australia through their contact with Macassan traders, which probably began around the sixteenth century. Their word for European, Balanda, is derived from the Makassar language via the Malay "orang belanda" (Dutch person).[32]

In 1883, the explorer David Lindsay was the first colonial white to penetrate Yolgnu lands for the purposes of making a survey of its resources and prospects. He trekked along the Goyder River to reach the Arafura Swamp on the western fringe of Wagilak land.[33] In 1884, 10,000 square miles (26,000 km²) of Arnhem Land was sold by the colonial British government to cattle grazier, John Arthur Macartney. The property was called Florida Station and Macartney stocked it with cattle overlanded from Queensland. The first manager of the property, Jim Randell, bolted a swivel cannon to the verandah of the homestead to keep the Indigenous people away, while Jack Watson, the last manager of the property, reportedly "wiped out a lot" of "the blacks" living on the coast at Blue Mud Bay.[34][35][36] During the period of Watson's management, another large massacre is recorded to have happened at Mirki on the north coast of Florida Station. The Yolngu people today remember this massacre where many people including children were shot dead.[37][38] The battles between the graziers and the local population resulted in a severe depopulation of Yolgnu, but the stiffness of resistance temporarily ended efforts by the intruding balanda to take over further territory, and efforts at settlement ground to a halt.[39] Monsoonal flooding, disease and the strong resistance from the local Aboriginal population resulted in Florida Station being abandoned by Macartney in 1893.

In the early 20th century, Yolgnu oral history relates, punitive expeditions were launched into their territories.[40] From 1903 to 1908, the property rights of much of Arnhem Land were held by the Eastern and African Cold Storage Supply Company. This Anglo-Australian consortium leased the region under the name of Arafura cattle station and attempted to construct a massive cattle raising and meat production industry. The company employed roving gangs of armed men to shoot the resident Aboriginal population.[41] The first mission to Yolngu country was set up at Milingimbi Island in 1922. The island is the traditional home of the Yan-nhaŋu. Beginning in 1932, over two years, three incidents of killing outsiders caused problems for the Yolgnu.

In 1932 five Japanese trepangers were speared by Yolŋu men, in what became known as the Caledon Bay crisis. Yolgnu men testified that their actions arose in response to the abuse of their women and to thrashings and firing on them by the Japanese crew.[42] Two whites, Fagan and Traynor, were killed near Woodah Island the following year, and soon afterwards, in July, Constable McColl, who was investigating the incidents, was speared on that island.[43][lower-alpha 3] The Aboriginal evidence was ignored in the trials which led to their conviction and the imprisonment of five Yolŋu in Fannie Bay Gaol in present-day Darwin. Only the intervention of missionaries, who had a foothold on the fringes of this area, and of the anthropologist Donald Thomson, who led a groundswell of indignation at the travesty of justice, averted an official reprisal designed to "teach the wild blacks a lesson."[40][42] One sentence was quashed, three sons of a local leader were released as was Dagiar, who had received a death sentence. It was widely believed that the latter, who disappeared, had been lynched by local policemen.[42]

Thomson lived with the Yolŋu for several years (1935-1937) and made some photographic and written records of their way of life at that time. These have become important historical documents for both Yolŋu and European Australians.[44]

In 1935 a Methodist mission opened at Yirrkala.

In 1941, during World War II, Thomson persuaded the Australian Army to establish a Special Reconnaissance Unit (NTSRU) of Yolŋu men to help repel Japanese raids on Australia's northern coastline (classified as top secret at the time). Yolŋu made contact with Australian and US servicemen, although Thomson was keen to prevent this. Thomson relates how the soldiers would often try to obtain Yolŋu spears as mementos. These spears were vital to Yolŋu livelihood, and took several days to make and forge.

More recently, Yolngu have seen the imposition of large mines on their tribal lands at Nhulunbuy.

The $1 bill featuring David Malangi's art

Before the emergence of the Western Desert art movement, the most well-known Aboriginal art was the Yolngu style of fine cross-hatching paintings on bark. The hollow logs (larrakitj) used in Arnhem Land burial practices serve an important spiritual purpose and are also important canvases for Yolngu art. David Malangi Daymirringu's bark depiction of Manharrnju clan mourning rites of the clan, from a private collection, was copied and featured on the original Australian one-dollar note. When the copyright violation came to light the Australian government, through the direct agency of H. C. Coombs, hastened to remunerate the artist.[48]

Yolngu are also weavers. They weave dyed pandanus leaves into baskets. Necklaces are also made from beads made of seeds, fish vertebrae or shells. Colours are often important in determining where artwork comes from and which clan or family group created it. Some designs are the insignia of particular families and clans.

The Yothu Yindi band, especially after its song "Treaty", performed the most popular indigenous music since Jimmy Little's Royal Telephone (1963) became Australia's most successful contemporary indigenous music group, and performed throughout the world. Their work has elicited serious musicological analysis.[49]

Arnhem Land is the home of the yiḏaki, which Europeans have named the didgeridoo. Yolngu are both players and craftsmen of the yiḏaki. It can only be played by certain men, and traditionally there are strict protocols around its use.

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu (1971–2017) was a famous Yolngu singer.

• Yingiya Mark Guyula, Independent member for Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly.