y separately published work icon Petitions from Indigenous Australians: Emergence and Negotiations of Indigenous Authorship and Writings single work   thesis  
Issue Details: First known date: 2012... 2012 Petitions from Indigenous Australians: Emergence and Negotiations of Indigenous Authorship and Writings
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'This research discusses the negotiations instantiated by Indigenous petitions in Australia. It does so by conceptualising petition writing and reading, by considering the endorsement and commemoration of petitions, and by chronologically canvassing published and previously unpublished petitions addressed by Indigenous peoples from across Australia to government representatives and international bodies before and after Federation, from the mid 1840s to the early 1960s. Drawing on the theoretical contractarian framework developed by Charles W. Mills and Carole Pateman, the dissertation examines petition writing as a way of intervening in a domination (settler) contract and in an exclusionary and dominating white public sphere. This framework accounts for the collective dimension of petitions and for their nature as political instruments of negotiation within relations of domination and subordination. This cross disciplinary study is located within the scholarly work undertaken in Australian historical and literary studies which, especially since the 1990s, have highlighted the value of petitions as documents which record Aboriginal perspectives, and as forms of early Aboriginal writings deserving of critical attention. More broadly, it can also be contextualised within studies of the emergence of an Indigenous political voice and of processes of identity formation. It shares post-colonial studies’ interest in the relationship between the coloniser and the colonised and it replies to Spivak’s question of whether the subaltern can speak. The analysis of the petitions is historically contextualised and it reflects on the venues of the petitions’ creation (penal system, reserves and missions, urban and rural settings). It highlights the narratives and requests the petitions convey as well as the argumentative strategies employed by the petitioners. It considers the rhetoric of contemporary discourses (political, racial, humanitarian etc) visible in the petitions and the responses to these discourses put forward by the petitioners. The thesis outlines also some features which petitions and Aboriginal protest literature share and the aspect of “testimony” or “memorial” these petitions possess. An Appendix collects a sample of the Indigenous Australian petitions upon which the discussion is based. ' (Source: TROVE)

Notes

  • PhD Doctorate Thesis
  • Awarded by: University of New South Wales. Arts and Media.

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Related Works

Yirrkala Bark Petitions 1963 Yolngu People , Wali Wunungmurra , Larrakan Mununggirritj , Manunu Wunungmurra , Dhayila Munggurr , Dundiwuy Wanambi , Djalalingba Yunupingu , Milirrpum Marika , Daymbalipu Mununggurr , Wulanybuma Wunungmurra , Wawungmarra Maymuru , Nyabilingu Maymuru , Munggurawuy Yunupingu (illustrator), Yirrkala : 1963 (Manuscript version)6129554 6121641 1963 selected work correspondence
— Appears in: Reward and Punishment in Arnhem Land 1962-1963 1982; (p. 127-8) North of the Ten Commandments : A Collection of Northern Territory Literature 1991; (p. 116-117) Voices of Aboriginal Australia : Past, Present, Future 1996; (p. 70-71) Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature 2009; (p. 613-614)

The Yirrkala Bark Petitions (1963) were presented to the Australian House of Representatives, Commonwealth Parliament in August 1963, and are historic Australian documents. The petitions from the Yolngu people of Yirrkala were the first traditional documents recognised by the Commonwealth Parliament, and thus the first documentary recognition of Indigenous people in Australian law. The acceptance of these petitions also marked a bridge between two traditions of law.

During the late 1950s the Yolngu became aware of prospecting activities in the area of the Gove Peninsula in Arnhem Land, and the subsequent granting of mining leases over a considerable area of Yolngu traditional land. The Yolngu responded by sending a petition framed by painted bark to the Commonwealth Government demanding recognition of their rights. Although the petitioners were unsuccessful in gaining the Commonwealth Parliament’s recognition of rights to their traditional lands on the Gove Peninsula, the documents formed the foundation of the eventual recognition of Indigenous rights in Commonwealth Law.

The idea for the petition was inspired by two visiting politicians, Kim Beazley (Senior) and Gordon Bryant, the first petition dated 14 August 1963, the second dated 28 August 1963, were presented to the House of Representatives in August by the member for the Northern Territory, Mr Jock Nelson. The petitions was signed by twelve Yolngu men and women (aged between 18 to 36), who were members of local clans from both the Dhuwa and Yirritja moieties.

In 1968, a third petition was presented to Parliament, comprising a painted bark panel with text on the reverse side. This petition was painted by Dundiwuy Wanambi, and signed by: Mungurrawuy, Dundiwuy, Birrikitj, Mau, Matjid, Munyu, Nanyin, Wandjuk, Djalingpa, Gawirrin, Mr J.G. Yunupingu, Yinitjin, Mathaman, Djiriny, Guyuyuma, Djayila, and Roy Dadynga Marika.

The Yirrala petitions have played a ‘key part of the persistent claim for constitutional change which achieved the amendment of the Australian Constitution in 1967, the statutory acknowledgment of Aboriginal land rights by the Commonwealth in 1976, and the overturning of the obstacle of the concept of terra nullis by the High Court in the Mabo Case in 1992.'

(Source: AIATSIS; Museum of Australian Democracy website:; Wikipedia; 'Journey Goes Full Circle from Bark Petition to Blue Mud Bay'.)

Further reading:

– Read story by Wali Wunungumma Journey goes full circle from Bark Petition to Blue Mud Bay

– Bark petitions: Indigenous art and reform for the rights of Indigenous Australians

– 2013 National Naidoc Week Theme

– Yirrkala Bark Petitions 1963

– Online Exhibition

– 1962-63 The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. House of Representatives. Report from the Select Committee on Grievances of Yirrkala Aborigines, Arnhem Land Reserve.

– Solomon, David Harris. The People's Palace: Parliament in Modern Australia. Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press, 1986.

– Morphy, Howard. Art and Politics: The Bark Petition and the Barunga Statement. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2000.

– Towner, Joanne 'Copyright issues relating to Yirrkala 'Bark' petitions'. Table. 69 2001. 26-28.

– Schwarz, Janien and Canberra School of Art Beyond familiar territory: De-centering the Centre : an analysis of visual strategies in the art of Robert Smithson, Alfredo Jaar and the Bark petitions of Yirrkala, 1999.

– Langton, Marcia and Australian Broadcasting Corporation The quiet revolution : Indigenous People and the Resources Boom. Sydney NSW HarperCollins Publishers Australia, 2013.
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