Yirrkala

YirrkalaYirrkala is an indigenous community in Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 18 km south-east from the large mining town of Nhulunbuy. At the 2006 census, Yirrkala had a population of 687.

There has been an indigenous community at Yirrkala throughout recorded history, but the community increased enormously in size when Yirrkala mission was founded in 1935. Local governance and planning are now the responsibility of the Yolngu Dhanbul local council.

Yirrkala is home to a number of leading indigenous artists, whose bark paintings are represented in art galleries around the world. Yirrkala is also recognised as a home to the yidaki (didjeridu/didgeridoo). Some of the world\'s finest didgeridus come from Yirrkala.

Yirrkala played a pivotal role in the development of the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians when a bark petition was created at Yirrkala in 1963 and sent to the Australian 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 was unsuccessful as bauxite mining at Nhulunbuy went ahead, 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 an important historic document and can be viewed at Parliament House in Canberra.