Naku Dharuk The Bark Petitions: How the People of Yirrkala Changed the Course of Australian Democracy

by Clare Wright

In 1963—a year of race riots in the United States and explosive agitation for civil rights worldwide—the Indigenous people of the Northern Territory were yet to be recognised as full adults. Almost to a person, they were classed as wards of the state, unacknowledged as having any ownership over the land on which they had lived for tens of thousands of years.


In 1975 Gough Whitlam poured a handful of sand into the palm of Gurindji Elder Vincent Lingiari to symbolise the granting of deeds to his ancestral country—and the land rights movement was unstoppable. That journey towards legal recognition of native title started in 1963 with the Yirrkala Bark Naku Dharuk.


The background was a four-cornered contest for mastery of the land and its resources between the Menzies government, the mining industry, the Methodist Church and the Yolngu people of northeast Arnhem Land, under whose country was discovered a blanket of bauxite.


Throughout the tumultuous year of 1963, leaders of the Yolngu clans worked with white allies on the unprecedented political strategy that culminated in the presentation of four Bark Petitions to Federal Parliament. It was a key moment in the formation of a uniquely Indigenous engagement with Australian politics.


This is the story of a founding document in Australian democracy and the people who made it. It paints a vibrant picture of the profound and ancient culture of Australia’s first peoples, in all its continuing vigour.


Clare Wright’s groundbreaking Democracy Trilogy began with The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka (workers’ rights) and continued with You Daughters of Freedom (women’s rights). After a decade of research and community consultation, it concludes, fittingly, with a fascinating and compulsively readable account of a momentous but little-known episode in our shared political history.


Professor Clare Wright OAM is an award-winning historian, author, broadcaster and public commentator who has worked in politics, academia and the media. Clare is currently Professor of History and Professor of Public Engagement at La Trobe University. In 2020, Clare was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for 'services to literature and to historical research'. She is the author of four works of history, including the best-selling The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka and You Daughters of Freedom, the first two instalments of her Democracy Trilogy. She is popular public speaker, panellist and interviewer and makes frequent appearances at literary festivals and on radio and television.


‘Fascinating revelations. Beautifully told.’ Peter FitzSimons on The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka


‘A thrilling tale, superbly told, of brave Australian women with a passion for politics.’ Judith Brett on You Daughters of Freedom

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics, Audiobook, Book Club

626 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2024

About the author

Clare Wright is an historian who has worked as a political speechwriter, university lecturer, historical consultant and radio and television broadcaster. Her first book, 'Beyond the Ladies Lounge: Australia’s Female Publicans', garnered both critical and popular acclaim and her second, 'The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka', won the 2014 Stella Prize.

She researched, wrote and presented the ABC TV documentary Utopia Girls and is the co-writer of the four-part series The War That Changed Us which screened on ABC1.

Reviews

[Natasha (jouljet) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Naku Dharuk The Bark Petitions: How the People of Yirrkala Changed the Course of Australian Democracy Clare Wright

When a French mining company was awarded the lease of a large section of land in the Northern Territory in the 1960s, they were set to pull out millions of dollars worth of minerals to a massive profit. The lack of consultation, or even communication, with the original land owners and inhabitants, triggered an appeal to the decision makers of the country, via four intricately painted bark petitions. A key moment in Australian history, land rights, and relations between the First Nations people.

The first the people of the land knew about the proposed lease and subsequent mining of their land was the discovery of marking pegs through a field of crops. From there, the people started to talk, organise, and stand up for their rights.

Within a mission environment, where the white man had set about teaching English, God and the white ways, there was soon objection to the Petitions as they landed in the Southern states, and in Parliament. The policy of assimilation was suddenly arguing back, on the expected terms, and the powers that be struggled with that.

The cultural ways of the people of Yirrkala are shared here, with much for us to learn, listen and unlearn. The process, the community consultation process of the groups coming together, and the enduring lore for time always, is shared and explained. The political machinations of those far away decision makers hardly stand up to such wise and considered process.

White man ways, and presence akin to a plastic bag - indeed, over and over. The devastation of the failure of the recent referendum for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, shows how important this book is, to work on a better and wider understanding of Aboriginal culture, ways, connection to land, and generous open hand to share, if only we all would listen.

An incredibly documented, researched and personally generous story telling, on one of the most important pieces of history in so called Australia, that most of us know very little about. The fight for recognition and voice, and to just be consulted about what happens on the land held by a people for thousands of years. A must read for all Australians, along with the other volumes of the Democracy Trilogy.

[Jillwilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew nothing of this part of Australia’s political history before I read this book. It looks daunting but Clare Wright is such an engaging writer and makes everything come to life so well, the historical figures, the area of Arnhem Land where the action occurs, and the political machinations that were numerous.

Ṉäku Dhäruk/the Bark Petitions were the first petitions put to the federal Parliament in an Australian language (the language of the Yolŋu people). They were also the first petitions presented to the federal Parliament to lead directly to a parliamentary enquiry. They are also the first petitions by Indigenous Australians to assert land rights, and therefore the direct precursor to subsequent land rights legislation and court cases. Clasre Wright also makes the case that the “Ṉäku Dhäruk/the Bark Petitions can also be seen as an attempt by the Yolŋu people to come to a form of diplomatic agreement-making between one sovereign nation and another.“

Clare Wright was lucky enough to live in this part of the world for a while, which gave her opportunities to build relationships with locals so that when she saw the actual bark petitions at Parliament House, her curiosity was piqued and the historian in her wanted to find out more about what had led to their presence in Canberra. Wright’s sources enable her to do this. She draws on the diaries, notebooks, manuscripts, letters, photographs, slides, audio and film recordings, newspaper clippings, and art that comprise the privately held Edgar and Anne Wells collection. This material is “the nucleus of this book”, she states. “I am the first person outside the family to view it”.
So the book provides insights into the perspectives of the missionaries who wrote letters and agitated, and of surviving Yolŋu people. It provided a sense of what it was like to live there and the very detailed machinations of those who wanted the mine to go ahead as well as those who did not. It is a fascinating story.

After I read it, I also enjoyed reading reviewers who commented on the writing style. Wright said of the book: “I think my narrative style is perhaps only unique to scholarly history writing. My literary influences are drawn far more from fiction of screen writing than academic discourse. First, I write narrative non-fiction: the beats are story-driven, not argument-driven. I also focus on character and write on the heels of the very many characters who contributed to the story of Ṉäku Dhäruk/the Bark Petitions; if they don’t know what’s going to happen next as protagonists, neither do we as readers.
I think this approach is more reflective of the way that people live their lives, people then and people now. I hope it shows that people (ie: us) make history every day in the choices they make, the alliances they form, the values they honour, the rights and liberties they struggle for, the way they act as either ‘enlargers’ or ‘punishers’, to borrow from Manning Clark.” (https://www.broadagenda.com.au/2024/t...)

A reviewer, History professor Tim Rowse wrote: “What distinguishes Wright’s account of the disorder among settler authorities is the length, detail and intimacy of her narration. Her “intimate storytelling” takes the reader inside the heads of the missionaries, legislators and public servants.
Wright’s storytelling achieves “intimacy” by making words, phrases and sentences drawn from Yirrkala mission sources, Hansard and government correspondence appear – italicised – within her own sentences. These quotations are not distinguished from her own words by quotation marks or indentation – the standard markers of quotation. Her “intimate storytelling” has its precedent in the novel – in particular, what literary theory calls “free indirect speech”. This is a means of representing the thought or speech of a character in the context of a narrator’s discourse. It is exemplified in the work of (among others) Jane Austen, George Eliot, Henry James, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster and Virginia Woolf.” (https://theconversation.com/clare-wri...)
He also said: “Manning Clark was the foremost practitioner of “free indirect” narration. Mark McKenna (one of the ten endorsers of Näku Dhäruk) explains, in his admirable An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark (2011), that as early as 1940 Clark began to detest the ways that he was taught to write at Oxford. In his six-volume History of Australia, Clark sought to break with “the ‘positivistic spirit’ and ‘objective reality’ that characterised scholarly history”.
“Manning Clark was the foremost practitioner of “free indirect” narration. Mark McKenna (one of the ten endorsers of Näku Dhäruk) explains, in his admirable An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark (2011), that as early as 1940 Clark began to detest the ways that he was taught to write at Oxford. In his six-volume History of Australia, Clark sought to break with “the ‘positivistic spirit’ and ‘objective reality’ that characterised scholarly history”.

This book fits with Wright's other books: “The trilogy turns on the material heritage of Australian democracy – flag, banner, bark – but also demonstrates that each moment was about disenfranchised people demanding the right to be heard, to be counted. Each of these moments/movements was about Voice.” (https://www.broadagenda.com.au/2024/t...) However, Wright notes: “An Indigenous colleague recently told me that, as the bark petitions were not fully reciprocated, they remain “colonial trophies”. Displayed in a museum or archive they can be fetishised as tokens of Australians’ genius for “democracy” – like the flag and the banner.”

The other thing I liked that she does at the end is to consider what the long-term impact of mining has been on that community. She writes: “Where did the rent and royalties go? In Victoria, evidence of gold rush riches is visible in every town and dominates Naarm’s (Melbourne’s) architectural landscape. But where are the grand buildings and structural riches of the Northern Territory? And what about the earnings from the other leases for the remaining 199 million acres excised by the Menzies government? We know that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people removed from their mineral rich lands were herded into internment camps and impoverished for generations to come – where did their inherited wealth go?”

One reviewer notes: “Wright’s concluding chapter, ‘The Right to Be Heard’, draws out this narrative of systematic abandonment by exposing the abject failure of the Standing Committee of the House of Representatives: less than ten years after the appointment of the new superintendent and committee, the Yolŋu people were experiencing full-scale industrial, environmental and cultural assault; Balanda enjoyed five air-conditioned supermarkets, while the homes built for the Yolŋu people were unsuitable for the weather conditions.“ (https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/revie...)

It's a hefty book but very engaging in terms of the way it’s written. A very good read!

[Text Publishing]

The following reviews have been shared by Text Publishing - publisher of Naku Dharuk The Bark Petitions:

‘A masterpiece.’
Thomas Mayo, co-author of The Voice to Parliament Handbook

‘A masterful and definitive account of one of the most important political documents in Australian history. Wright brings to life this moving story of unwavering Yolngu resistance and the enduring legacy of their political actions.’
Larissa Behrendt, Distinguished Professor, UTS

‘Stunningly beautiful…I am in awe of this book. It’s like nothing I’ve ever read.’
Prof Frank Bongiorno, author of Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia

‘A stunning work of history. Deep and rich, complex and expansive.’
Prof Anna Clark, author of The Catch: Australia’s Love Affair with Fishing

‘A major contribution…This is Australian political history in its most urgent form.’
Prof John Carty, author of Sun and Shadow

‘Charged with wit, compassion and integrity…A shimmering force.’
Prof Tom Griffiths, author of The Art of Time Travel

‘Meticulous, fair, important and powerful.’
Ted Egan AO

‘Perfection.’
Professor Megan Davis

‘When the Uluru dialogues spoke about “truth telling”, they didn’t use that term, they said “history”: “How can they recognise us if they don’t know us?” This is officially the first history of the Uluru Statement era: the very messy story of power, subjugation and co-existence told by a brilliant historian. Clare Wright pioneers a way forward for the nation, starting with voice. The genesis of the right to be heard started with a bark petition.’
Megan Davis, Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law, UNSW, and Harvard Chair of Australian Studies

‘Clare Wright is the most remarkable and striking voice working on recovering the lost and forgotten pages of Australian history. Her work, as accessible as it is scholarly, is of the greatest importance.’
William Dalrymple

‘Of monumental importance.’
Age

‘An impossibly important book.’
Australian

‘A story that cannot be forgotten [by] one of Australia’s most revered historians.’
National Indigenous Times

‘The non-fiction book to know about…An essential account of the land rights movement and beyond.’
Qantas Magazine

‘What distinguishes Wright’s account of the disorder among settler authorities is the length, detail and intimacy of her narration.’
Conversation

‘Get the third in this trilogy. Get all of them...They’re fantastic, they’re gripping, and beautifully presented and written.’
James Valentine, ABC Radio NSW

‘The Näku Dhäruk (Yirrkala Bark Petitions) created by the Yolŋu of northeast Arnhem Land are founding documents in the land rights movement and crucial to our democracy. Here, Wright chronicles their history with the vivid detail and masterful storytelling we have come to expect of her! The final book in her incredible historical trilogy.’
Steph, Better Read Than Dead

‘A minutely rendered account of an undertaking that would, ultimately, upend the political and social assumptions on which Australian society had been based, and a primer on the elegant, pragmatic, complex otherness of Indigenous thought, culture and law…Generous, rigorously argued and artfully curated.’
Australian

‘Wright is creating an entirely new narrative, a reading of Australian history grounded in her own experience, a story only she is qualified to tell. It is a powerful account, and a weighty one.’
Inside Story

‘One of the outstanding works of Australian historical writing—one intended for a wide audience—so far this century. The third of Wright’s ‘Democracy’ trilogy, it is by far the most experimental of these books in its structure, language, and sources, a formidably original contribution to the country’s historical literature, and a timely political intervention in its own right.’
Frank Bongiorno

‘A dazzling conclusion to [the] Democracy Trilogy…Both a triumph of storytelling and a near-unparalleled feat of two-worlds thinking, this book—and the Trilogy—will stand as a milestone in Australian history.’
Yves Rees, Best Books of 2024, Spectrum

‘[I’m recommending] a book that’s close to my heart…It’s a brilliant book that moved my understandings of what Australian history could be.’
Anna Clark, Best Books of 2024, Spectrum

‘A rare example of a finely honed, lived-in history.’
Mark McKenna, Best Books of 2024, Spectrum

‘My most important book of 2024 is Clare Wright’s Naku Dharuk. Unlike most Australians, I grew up knowing much of the story about what was called the Yirrkala Bark Petitions, and yet…What she has done, weaving forensic historical research with Yolngu knowledge is nothing short of brilliant…Naku Dharuk, with its cultural respect and drive for truth-telling, left me awestruck and sobbing.’
Bernadette Brennan, Best Books of 2024, Spectrum

‘Clare Wright’s masterful work has ensured this remarkable event will forever be understood and properly appreciated.’
Barrie Cassidy

‘Impressively researched…An unforgettable saga of Australian democracy’s engagement with deep Indigenous sovereignty.’
Age

‘The most painstaking and beautiful reconstruction of mission life…feels like a revolutionarily good piece of history…exhilarating to read…so gripping.’
Annabel Crabb

‘A powerful picture of hope in the face of injustice, and of other, deeper ways of going forward. It is inspiring. My complete admiration.’
Steve Vizard

‘5 stars. Meticulously researched…Wright’s masterful writing—studious but not overbearing—ensures that this is neither dry nor dusty.’
Good Reading

‘A page-turner…I highly recommend this book.’
Independent Australia

‘Magnificent…Not only tells a vital tale of Australian democracy but offers so many insights into the world view that creates such great Yolŋu art.’
Aboriginal Art Directory

‘Ground-breaking yet surprisingly propulsive...Narrated through the eyes of its many characters, it manages like no other narrative—save perhaps the specialised work of anthropologists—to impart a palpable sense of the intricacy and depth of the relationship between Indigenous identity and the land itself.’
Sunday Times, South Africa

‘A living testament to the struggle of the Yolngu people to protect and celebrate their connection to country.’
Age Book of the Year Judges

‘Lucid, accessible, and engaging…Wright has written this story with an exciting creativity—and it is a story in the most powerful sense of the word!’
Australian Book Review

‘Näku Dhäruk reaches back toward the Yolŋu people with love, respect, admiration, and the gift of truth-telling and recognition…an immensely valuable resource.’
Sydney Review of Books

‘What an important book this is…A delight to read.’
Australian Historical Studies

[Sharron Terrill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is an important part of Australian history.

In some ways, it is the same old story. White paternalisitc politicians, missionaries, the church, large greedy overseas companies all controlling and making decisions for Aboriginal people.

However, this story does differ. There was a white missionary that stood up to the government, the big overseas mining companies and the church. Also, the Yolngu people of northeast Arnhem Land were able to clearly articulate what they wanted and needed. Perhaps they already knew their rights but the Rev Edgar Wells supported them and fought hard. Ultimately, it cost him the job he loved and more. But the Yolngu people were able to represent themselves, have a voice and become self sustaining business people.

This book also provides insight into the values, customs and ways that Yolngu people operate. This was valuable for me as it strengthened my understanding of Aboriginal connection to land and their different perspectives on communication and relationships.

This book is extremely well researched and comprehensive which is both is strength and it's weakness because it is so long. It is worth the read but it takes commitment to get to the end. The author is to be commended for her extensive research.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️'s for the retelling of these events plus
⭐️ for the amazing research and commitment of the author

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A meticulously researched history of all the people and events surrounding the production of the "Bark Petitions" and the impetus for the land rights movement. The perspectives of the book are taken from the records of white observers and participants in the events, but it is very effective in highlighting the paternalism and huge injustices perpetrated on the indigenous community while also recognising their determination and persistence in asserting their rights and identity. This is a very long and detailed book, so it requires real dedication to read it and it is definitely not for those who just want an overview of events or insight into what was happening at the time. While I enjoyed reading the details about the many people involved, at times the story was a bit confusing with a disrupted narrative flow. Having said that, it is written in an accessible way for such a complex topic. Congratulations are due to Wright for her forensic research and documentation as well as her committent to covering the topic from every angle and perspective.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Naku Dharuk by Clare Wright forensically examines the events of the early 1960s which led the Yolnu people of northeast Arnhem Land to place before the Australian Parliament in 1963, their extraordinary Bark Petitions.

I was not familiar with the prevailing Government and Church systems in place at the time which made it possible for an overseas mining concern to simply walk onto the traditional hunting, fishing and living lands of the longstanding and sophisticated indigneous clans. I was unaware of the cultural systems which regulated their lives and that the Yolnu had for many years engaged with the Macassan traders from across the water. I appreciated understanding more about the political, social and cultural attitudes which accounted for the responses the Yolnu received to their claims for land rights and compensation.

Naku Dharuk did a fabulous job of presenting each of the main players in the drama. Many of the staff of the Yirrkala Mission worked mightily in the interests of their indigneous charges under the leadership of the heroic Rev Edgar Wells. Politicians of the day like Menzies, Hasluck, Beazley (snr), Aboriginal supporters Stan Davey, Gordon Bryant, leaders and staff of the Methodist Overseas mission Rev Gordon Symons, Rev Cecil Gribble become embroiled in the lives of the Yolnu in their quest to have their basic human rights acknowledged and honoured and their Country respected.

Naku Dharuk is a deep dive into Indigneous and Australian history and deserves to be read by many. Be warned however that this enlightening, important book will take plenty of time to complete!

[Bronwen Heathfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for anyone interested in the history of indigenous rights in Australia. I learnt so much about mining in Arnhem Land, the role of the church, the cloth ears of government and the resilience of First Nations people. The Yolŋu are certainly extraordinary as are their supporters including Kim Beasley Senior. It is a long and occasionally confusing story but well written and worth persevering with. Highly recommend

[Di · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating and readable history of the 1963 Yirrkala Bark Petitions to the Federal parliament: an important development in relations between the Yolnju people and white Australia. It laid the foundation for land rights and was a gesture of goodwill towards the Australian parliament, asking for respect and consultation in the proposed development of their ancestral lands.

[Raz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great and really immersive read about a subject I was mostly ignorant about beforehand. My only criticism is that it's a huge amount of text to get through, I was struggling a bit by the tail end of the book!

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an impressive and amazing book, reading like a thriller. There is tension and many complications. This is a critically important book about Australian legal history which we all should be more aware of.

[Hutch Hussein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comprehensive and detailed history of the land rights movement. Great for history buffs. Given I wish more people would read it, would have been good to have a shorter version to make it more accessible.

[Alan Marr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has Clare Wright saved the best of her "democracy trilogy" till last? Perhaps.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible, comprehensive book of history, but very accessible to read.

[Mary Tennant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a history that all Australians should be made aware of. Wright has captured it from every angle and in great depth.