Indigenous Rights Pioneer and Founder of Yothu Yindi, Yunupingu Dies

Mandawuy Yunupingu of Yothu Yindi speaks to the media after being inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame at the 26th Annual ARIA Awards 2012 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on Nov. 29, 2012 in Sydney, Australia. (Caroline McCredie/Getty Images)

Visionary land rights pioneer Yunupingu is being remembered by his people as “a giant of the nation” as they mourn his death in northeast Arnhem Land.

Surrounded by his family and ceremonial adornments, Yunupingu, 74, died peacefully at his home in northeast Arnhem Land on Monday morning, the Youth Yindi Foundation confirmed.

“A giant of the nation whose contribution to public life spanned seven decades, he was first and foremost a leader of his people, whose welfare was his most pressing concern and responsibility,” the Youth Yindi Foundation he chaired said in a statement.

Yunupingu was born on June 30, 1948, in Gunyangara, on the northern tip of the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory.

A pioneer for land rights throughout Australia, in 1963, he assisted in the drafting of the first Yirrkala bark petition presented to the Australian parliament.

Yunupingu met former Prime Minister Robert Menzies in the 1960s and dealt personally with every serving prime minister of Australia since Gough Whitlam.

“Many promises were made, none were delivered in full. As a sovereign man of his clan nation, he was left disappointed by them all,” the foundation said.

In 1999, he founded Garma Festival with his brother.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced details of the Indigenous voice to parliament at the festival last year.

He shook hands with Yunupingu, who asked if his commitment was serious.

“He was told it was. This promise has been kept,” the foundation said.

Albanese said it would be a very difficult day for Yunupingu’s family and Indigenous Australians.

“He was just an extraordinary leader, and it’s a great loss,” he told ABC Radio National.

In a statement, the prime minister also noted that Australia had lost not just a leader and statesman but an artist who walked in two worlds and worked to make them whole.

“Yunupingu walked in two worlds with authority, power and grace, and he worked to make them whole — together. What he could see was not the reinvention of Australia, but the realisation of a greater one,” he said.

“Our hearts go out, especially to the Yolngu, the Gumatj clan, and the great Yunupingu family.

To all who loved him, to all who were moved by him, to all there who have gazed out to where the Gulf of Carpentaria meets the sky. We will never again hear his voice anew, but his words – and his legacy – will keep speaking to us.”

After attending the Methodist Bible College in Brisbane, Yunupingu acted as a court interpreter for his father in the first native title litigation in Australia, the Gove Land Rights case.

From 1973 to 1974, he gave advice towards the Whitlam Government’s Royal Commission into Land Rights in the Northern Territory, and worked with the Fraser Government on the enactment of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.

During this time, together with other Yolngu leaders, he also led the revival of the homelands movement.

A strong advocate for local employment and self-determination, Yunupingu set up a local cattle station, a timber mill and a nursery in Arnhem Land, and established the first Aboriginal-owned and operated mine in the country, the Gumatj-owned Gulkula Bauxite Mine.

“He guided this company to its present state, building on the wealth of his people’s land, their knowledge of the land and their willingness to work for a future that is theirs,” the board of Gumatj Aboriginal Corporation said in a statement.

Yunupingu was also a revered master of the ceremonies and a keeper of the songlines of the Yolngu people.

In his own words, he said: “My inner life is that of the Yolngu song cycles, the ceremonies, the knowledge, the law and the land. This is yothu yindi. Balance. Wholeness. Completeness.”

“A world designed in perfection, founded on the beautiful simplicity of a mother and her newborn child; as vibrant and as dynamic as the estuary where the salt waters meet the freshwaters, able to give you everything you need.”

His totems were fire, rock and baru (saltwater crocodile).

His daughter Binmila Yunupingu said the family was mourning with “deep love and great sadness ... the holder of our sacred fire, the leader of our clan and the path-maker to our future.”

“The loss to our family and community is profound. We are hurting, but we honour him and remember with love everything he has done for us,” she said in a statement.

“We remember him for his fierce leadership and total strength for Yolngu and for Aboriginal people throughout Australia. He lived by our laws always.”

Ceremonies to return Yunupingu “to his land and to his fathers” would eventually be held in north-east Arnhem Land, she said.

“Our father was driven by a vision for the future of this nation, his people’s place in the nation and the rightful place for Aboriginal people everywhere.

“We ask you to mourn his passing in your own way, but we as a family encourage you to rejoice in the gift of his life and leadership.

“There will never be another like him.”