1988 marked the bi-centennary of British settlement in Australia, and it was in this year that Prime Minister Bob Hawke attended the Barunga Festival in a small Indigenous community south of Katherine. There, Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Wenten Rubuntja, presented the Prime Minister with the Barunga Statement.
The Barunga Statement called on the Australian Government to recognise the rights of Indigenous land owners and to formalise a Treaty with them. It was modelled on the Yirrkala Petition (1963) which the previous generation of Yolngu leaders had sent to the House of Representatives in protest against mining on the Gove Peninsula. Galarrwuy and Mandawuy’s own father was a signatory to this petition. On receiving the Barunga Statement (1988) at the Barunga Festival, Prime Minister Hawke vowed that his government would enter into a Treaty with Indigenous Australians by 1990. However, this promise would never be realised.
"Treaty” was composed by Yothu Yindi in collaboration with Paul Kelly and Midnight Oil to protest the failure of the Australian Government to honour the Prime Minister’s promise to Indigenous Australians at the Barunga Festival.
Treaty
1988 marked the bi-centennary of British settlement in Australia, and it was in this year that Prime Minister Bob Hawke attended the Barunga Festival in a small Indigenous community south of Katherine. There, Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Wenten Rubuntja, presented the Prime Minister with the Barunga Statement.The Barunga Statement called on the Australian Government to recognise the rights of Indigenous land owners and to formalise a Treaty with them. It was modelled on the Yirrkala Petition (1963) which the previous generation of Yolngu leaders had sent to the House of Representatives in protest against mining on the Gove Peninsula. Galarrwuy and Mandawuy’s own father was a signatory to this petition. On receiving the Barunga Statement (1988) at the Barunga Festival, Prime Minister Hawke vowed that his government would enter into a Treaty with Indigenous Australians by 1990. However, this promise would never be realised.
"Treaty” was composed by Yothu Yindi in collaboration with Paul Kelly and Midnight Oil to protest the failure of the Australian Government to honour the Prime Minister’s promise to Indigenous Australians at the Barunga Festival.
Lyrics