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Yolngu Bark Petitions, 1963
The Yolngu people presented bark petitions to Parliament, the first Aboriginal use of Westminster parliamentary forms.
What happened
In August 1963, the Yolngu presented Bark Petitions to Parliament over unconsulted mining excisions.[1]
Sources for this page
Each number marks a specific claim. Notes give the source, its locator and how it relates to the claim.
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1.
Claim: In August 1963, the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land presented Bark Petitions, written in both Yolngu and English, to the Australian Parliament, marking the first time Aboriginal people had used Westminster parliamentary forms to press a claim; the petitions responded to the federal government's excision of 140 square miles from the Arnhem Land Aboriginal Reserve for bauxite mining without consulting the Yolngu people who lived there.
- A short history of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy – an indelible reminder of unceded sovereignty (The Conversation) link, 1963 Yolngu Bark Petitions section. Source record