Yirrkala
Yirrkala is a small community in East Arnhem Region, Northern Territory of Australia, south-east from the large mining town of Nhulunbuy, on the Gove Peninsula in Arnhem Land. It population comprises predominantly Aboriginal Australians of the Yolngu people, and it is also home to a number of Mission Aviation Fellowship pilots and engineers based in Arnhem Land providing air transport services. In the , Yirrkala had a population of 809 people. History. 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. Land rights . 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. Outstation status. The settlement was funded as an outstation during the 1980s. At the , Yirrkala had a population of 687. Governance and people. the East Arnhem Regional Council is the local government for Yirrkala, which is in the council's Gumurr Miwatj Ward. It consults with Yirrkala Mala Leaders Association, consisting of 12 elected community members. The Northern Land Council is  the land council to the community, responsible for matters under the "Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976". In the , Yirrkala had a population of 809 people, of whom 83.1% identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. Culture. Yirrkala is home to a number of leading Indigenous artists, whose traditional Aboriginal art, particularly bark painting, can be found in art galleries around the world, and whose work frequently wins awards such as the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. Their work is available to the public from the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre and Museum and  also from the YBE art centre. Pioneer bark painters from this region the National Museum of Australia consider old masters include Mithinarri Gurruwiwi, Birrikitji Gumana and Mawalan Marika. It is also a traditional home of the Yidaki (didgeridoo), and some of the world's finest didgeridoos are still made at Yirrkala. Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre. 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. The inspiration for the gallery arose in the 1960s , when Narritjin Maymuru set up his own gallery on the beachfront. 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 which, after delivery by the anthropologist Donald Thomson were instrumental in establishing peaceful talks during the Caledon Bay crisis in 1935. 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. 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. 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. Education. At Yirrkala School, formerly Yirrkala Community School, renamed Yirrkala Community Education Centre or Yirrkala CEC after it became a location of one of the trial Community Education Centres (CEC) in 1988, students undertake a method of bilingual studies dubbed "both ways", incorporating a cultural curriculum called Galtha Rom, meaning cultural lessons. Despite a 2009 Northern Territory Government order to teach English for the first four hours each day, the school continued to teach in its own way, with the child's first language, Yolngu Matha, taught alongside English. The method has proven  effective against reducing the drop-out rate, and in 2020 eight students were the first in their community to graduate year 12 with scores enabling them to attend university. Yirrkala School and its sister school, Laynhapuy Homelands School, are now being looked to as models for learning in remote traditional communities. Artist and teacher-linguist Yalmay Marika Yunupingu, one of the famous Marika family of north-east Arnhem Land, daughter of artist Mathaman Marika, was appointed senior teacher at the school in 2004, and continues to work there . 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. Heritage listings. Yirrkala has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: