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, with people from 13 different Yolngu clans moving to Yirrkala.[4] Around this time, the Methodist Overseas Mission (MOM) was encouraging their senior staff to study anthropology under A. P. Elkin at Sydney University, to learn more about Aboriginal Australian culture, in particular the Yolngu people who lived in East Arnhem.[5]

Mission superintendents included founding superintendent Wilbur Chaseling, Harold Thornell, and Edgar Wells, who wrote about their experiences there. The residents were free to come and go as they wished and the interaction was on the whole positive in those early days, with a lack of dogmatism by the missionaries, and the Yolngu people accommodating Christianity within a version of their own beliefs.[5]

MOM received a government subsidy to run the mission, and school classes operated from 1936, at first outdoors under a tree, and later beneath the Mission House. In 1951 a new school building was built, and by 1952, it had 47 children regularly attending classes there, taught by a Miss Proctor. She was not a trained teacher, but had worked at the mission on Goulburn Island for three years. The mission received child endowment for every Aboriginal child there, regardless of attendance at the school.[4]

During World War II, a RAAF airbase operated close by. Many mission residents worked there, as boat pilots for the RAAF and the Royal Australia Navy, or assisted the war effort by other means. The school did not operate during this time, and all "white women" were evacuated in 1942.[4]

Around 1974 control of the mission was passed to the Yirrkala Dhanbul Community Association, and no longer operated as a mission from that time.[4]

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.[6]

The settlement was funded as an outstation during the 1980s.[7]

At the 2021 census, Yirrkala had a population of 657.[8]

The Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, formerly Buku-Larrŋgay Arts and also known as the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre and Museum, is a world-renowned centre, with well-known artists such as Nyapanyapa Yunupingu based there.[14] It is often referred to as Buku for short.[15][16]

The inspiration for the gallery arose in the 1960s, when Narritjin Maymuru set up his own gallery on the beachfront.[17]

In 1976 Buku-Larrŋgay Arts was established by local artists in the old Mission health centre, after missionaries had left and as the Aboriginal land rights and Homeland movements gathered pace. A new museum was built in 1988 using a Bicentenary grant, and this now contains a collection created in the 1970s which illustrates clan law. It also houses the message sticks[17] which, after delivery by the anthropologist Donald Thomson were instrumental in establishing peaceful talks during the Caledon Bay crisis in 1935.[18]

In 1996, extra gallery spaces and a screen print studio were built, and in 2007, The Mulka Project was added. This project comprises a collection of many thousands of historical images and films, and continues to create new digital art and images.[17]

The current centre, greatly expanded, comprises two divisions: the Yirrkala Art Centre, which represents the artists exhibiting and selling contemporary art, and The Mulka Project, which incorporates the museum.[17] It is known for its production of bark paintings, weaving in natural fibres, larrakitj (memorial poles), yidaki, and many other forms of art.[19]

There is a stage called the Roy Marika Stage at the centre, which is used for the annual Yarrapay Festival. In June 2021, the festival was directed by Witiyana Marika, and featured the Andrew Gurruwiwi Band, Yothu Yindi, Yirrmal, and East Journey.[20]

The historic Yirrkala Church Panels were created in 1963 by Yolngu elders of the Dhuwa moiety (including Mawalan Marika, Wandjuk Marika and Mithinarri Gurruwiwi), who painted one sheet with their major ancestral narratives and clan designs, and eight elders of the Yirritja moiety, including Mungurrawuy Yunupingu, Birrikitji Gumana and Narritjin Maymuru, who painted the other sheet with Yirritja designs.[21][22][23] They were discarded by the church in 1974, but were salvaged by Buku-Larrnggay in 1978. On 27 February 1998 they were unveiled by then prime minister John Howard, and were described by Yolŋu leaders as "Title Deeds which establish the legal tenure for each of our traditional clan estates".[21]

The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne has been collecting bark paintings by Buku artists for over 20 years, which are included in its significant collection of work by Yolŋu women artists.[24]

Women artists who have worked at the centre include five sisters: Nancy Gaymala Yunupingu, Gulumbu Yunupingu, Barrupu Yunupingu, Nyapanyapa Yunupingu, and Eunice Djerrkngu Yunupingu; as well as Dhuwarrwarr Marika; Malaluba Gumana; Naminapu Maymuru-White; Nonggirrnga Marawili; and Dhambit Mununggurr; and Margaret Wirrpanda. Their work was included in a December 2021 – April 2022 exhibition at the NGV, called Bark Ladies: Eleven Artists from Yirrkala.[15][24][25]

Artist and teacher-linguist Yalmay Marika Yunupingu is one of the famous Marika family of north-east Arnhem Land, daughter of artist Mathaman Marika[29] and sister of artist, cultural leader and environmentalist Dr B Marika. She was married to former Yothu Yindi lead singer and educator Dr M Yunupingu.[30]

Yunupingu was appointed senior teacher at the school in 2004.[28] She was awarded the Northern Territory Government's Teaching Excellence Award in the Remote Primary category for her work at Yirrkala, and her artwork has featured in exhibitions in Australia and the US.[29] She has translated children's books into language, and taught "both ways" bilingual education for her whole career. She retired in early 2023 after 40 years at the school, with family, friends, colleagues and other community members gathering to celebrate her contribution.[30]