Minute by the Lord Mayor
To Council:
On the morning of our last Council meeting on
3 April 2023, we learned that Dr Yunupingu AM had passed away.
Yunupingu, as he was universally known, was a
leader, activist, linguist, artist and musician. A member of the Gumatj clan of
the Yolngu people, he was born at Melville Bay, near Yirrkala in northeast
Arnhem Land, Northern Territory on 30 June 1948.
He had his first taste of politics at the
Yirrkala mission school where he took on the role of “prime minister in the
‘school parliament’”. Yunupingu then spent two years as a teenager at Brisbane
Bible College where he discovered a skill for translation, which he later put
to good use.
At 16, he helped draft the Yirrkala bark
petitions that asserted that the Yolngu people owned land over which the
Federal Government had granted mining rights to a private company, Nabalco. In
response, an Australian Government Parliamentary Select Committee recommended
that the Yirrkala people should be compensated for loss of their traditional
occupancy. The Northern Territory Government ignored the recommendation and
unilaterally revoked part of the Yirrkala Aboriginal reserve in order to enable
Nabalco to develop the mine.
In 1968, the decision was challenged in the
Northern Territory Supreme Court in what became known as the "Gove land
rights case". Judge Blackburn had to determine whether Aboriginal
customary ownership was an enforceable proprietary right under Australian law.
Yunupingu and another Bible college trainee, Wulanybuma Wunungmurra, translated
the Yolngu testimonies of customary law into English. Although the legal
challenge was unsuccessful, Yunupingu contributed significantly to the judge’s
grasp of Yolngu customs. This gave Yunipingu and the Yolngu clans unprecedented
credibility and led to bipartisan moves to establish Aboriginal land rights
through legislation.
In 1975, Yunipingu joined the Northern Land
Council which in 1976 became a representative body with statutory authority
under law.
Yunipingu became Chair in 1977, a position he
held until 1980 and then again from 1983 until 2004. Yunupingu led negotiations
with mining and government bodies with the aim of ensuring that mining was
conducted on the traditional owners' terms, including respect for the land and
specific sacred sites and a fair distribution of the economic benefits.
Yunupingu insisted: "We will continue to fight for the right to make our
own decisions about our own land".
In 1978, he was named Australian of the Year
for his Aboriginal land rights work. He saw the award as a breakthrough for
Aboriginal people: “We are at last being recognised as the indigenous people of
this country who must share in its future.” In 1985, he was made a Member of
the Order of Australia.
Yunupingu’s commitment to Aboriginal
self-determination continued in 1988 when he and Wenten Rubuntja presented the
"Barunga Statement” - a 1.2 square metre painting which set out Aboriginal
political objectives. The then Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, responded by
committing his Government to a treaty between Aboriginal and other Australians
by 1990, a commitment he failed to honour.
Yunupingu sometimes joined his younger
brother Mungurrawuy in the band Yothu Yindi playing bilma (clapsticks) and
guitar. In 1990, the group established the Yothu Yindi Foundation to promote
Yolngu cultural development.
The Foundation held its first Garma Festival
in 1999, with the name taken from the Yolngu word meaning "two-way
learning process" and has become Australia's largest Indigenous cultural
gathering, attracting over 2,500 attendees each year.
In his 2019 Garma speech, two years after the
Uluru Statement of the Heart, Yunupingu called for significant constitutional
reform, saying “Constitution is a right close to Aboriginal people’s hearts,
and mine.”
Later that year, the then Minister for
Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt announced a co-design process for an
"Indigenous voice to government" and established a Senior Advisory
Group with Yunupingu as a member. Yunupingu also advised the Government on the
referendum as part of the Referendum Working Group.
While Yunupingu never lived to see the First
Peoples recognised in Australia’s Constitution, his long-term dream of a
bilingual school for children was realised in in his home community of
Gunyangara.
Yunupingu approached his own life and place
in the world with clarity. He once said:
“My
inner life is that of the Yolngu song cycles, the ceremonies, the knowledge,
the law and the land. This is yothu yindi. Balance. Wholeness. Completeness”.
Recommendation
It is resolved that:
(A)
all
persons attending this meeting of Council observe one minute's silence to mark
the life of Dr Yunupingu AM and his outstanding contribution to the advancement
of Australia's First Peoples, Aboriginal culture, heritage, land rights and
economic development and the cause of reconciliation;
(B)
Council
express its condolences to Dr Yunupingu's family; and
(C)
the
Lord Mayor be requested to convey Council's sincere condolences to Dr
Yunupingu's family.
COUNCILLOR
CLOVER MOORE
Lord Mayor
Moved by the Chair
(the Lord Mayor), seconded by Councillor Weldon –
That the Minute by
the Lord Mayor be endorsed and adopted.
Carried
unanimously.
Note – All
Councillors, staff and members of the public present stood in silence for one
minutes as a mark of respect to Dr Yunupingu AM.
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