In 1963 a sheet of bark was presented in the Australian Federal Parliament. On it, 12 signatories from Australia’s Northern Territory objected to a number of pieces of paper that would have a great impact on indigenous lands – leases granting a giant bauxite company power to mine. The bark petition asked Parliamentarians to recognize what the mining leases did not – that the affected land and seas belonged to Aboriginal people: the Yirrkala clans. Wali Wunungmurra was one of those signatories.
Thirteen years later – following legal battles, an inquiry and a Royal Commission – Federal Parliament handed Aboriginal land reserves in the Northern Territory back to their traditional owners. But not their sea country. For decade after decade Wali and his people continued to frown as they watched the steady stream of recreational and commercial fishers in indigenous waterways rich in crab, shellfish, fish, turtle and dugong.
