Yirrkala is just a 15 minute drive from Nhulunbuy and I have been a couple of times before to check out the world renowned Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre which is full of beautiful Aboriginal art including bark paintings, memorial poles, paintings, jewelry and sculptures.
The population of Yirrkala is around 800 mainly Aboriginal Australians of the Yolngu people. The community is known for the 1963 Bark Petitions. In 1963 the Australian government took 300 square kilometres of land for mining from the Yolngu people in Arnhem Land without asking them. Wanting their voices to be heard, the Yolngu people submitted two bark petitions that made history. The Yirrkala bark petitions were the first example of a native title litigation in Australia. They paved the way for the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission and the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.
You can read more about this here – https://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item-did-104.html
Yirrkala is a very basic community surrounded by beautiful beaches, and it provides access to the Gulf of Carpentaria via the Yirrkala Boat Ramp. We often see Yolngu people fishing from the beach with traditional spears, as well as the remnants of turtles and other sea creatures which have been cooked on a beach camp fire.
We were unsure if we would be able to go into Yirrkala yesterday as they were having a ceremony for a 16 year old boy who was murdered in April in a brawl on the football oval. His body had finally been released to the family. As we entered the town, we could see red flags posted along the roads and some roads blocked off. We had also heard of ‘payback’ happening. (Payback’ is an Australian Aboriginal English term (also known in Melanesia) commonly understood to refer to a vendetta. Satisfaction of a grievance, such as a death or wife-stealing, may be sought through ritual ceremony, gift-giving, corporal punishment and ordeal, or even killing.) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0194659501901534#:~:text=’Payback’%20is%20an%20Australian%20Aboriginal,and%20ordeal%2C%20or%20even%20killing.
However, everything was quiet and we felt safe.
Flannerys' Footprints 