Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to inform the Senate of the important return of the missing Yirrkala bark petition. It's one of four sent by the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land to the Commonwealth parliament in 1963. It was the Yolngu people, as well, under the late Mr Yunupingu, who encouraged the parliament to pursue a Voice. And it was no joking matter. It meant a lot to a lot of people, who have since passed, in pursuit of that important goal for First Nations people and for our country. The petitions were the first documents incorporating First Nations ways of representing relationships to land that were recognised by our parliament. So much has happened in this country since the bark petitions—we've had the 1967 referendum, the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act, the Mabo case and the Native Title Act—but the messages and words in the bark petition are as poignant and important today as they were in 1963. Ms Yananymul Mununggurr, daughter of the sole surviving signatory of the bark petitions, Dhunggala Mununggurr, calls the fourth petition 'our lost treasure':

My dad always told me there were more petitions than the ones people knew about … In 1963, four Bark Petitions were sent from Yirrkala for Canberra. Sixty years later, the fourth petition is coming home to us.

I want to pass on my congratulations to historian Clare Wright, Professor of History at La Trobe University, who has been researching the history of the Yirrkala bark petitions for a decade. She tracked down the fourth and final petition to a private owner in Derby, Western Australia and facilitated its handover to descendants of the original creators in November 2022. I thank you and the people of Arnhem Land, and I certainly wish all Northern Territorians a happy and safe Christmas.