Indigenous leader Yunupingu is being remembered as a great Australian, a statesman, a remarkable artist and a national treasure.

April 3, 2023

The footsteps of Indigenous leader Yunupingu, a giant of the nation who walked in two worlds as a land rights pioneer, have left an indelible mark.

Th visionary land rights pioneer has been remembered as a statesman, a remarkable artist and a national treasure.

The former Australian of the Year died peacefully at his home, surrounded by his family and ceremonial adornments, in northeast Arnhem Land on Monday, aged 74.

“We remember him for his fierce leadership, and total strength for Yolŋu and for Aboriginal people throughout Australia,” his family said.

“We are hurting, but we honour him and remember with love everything he has done.”

The Yothu Yindi Foundation he chaired said he was “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 foundation said.

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

In 1963 he helped draft the first Yirrkala bark petition presented to the Australian parliament.

An accomplished painter, singer and dancer, Yunupingu met former prime minister Robert Menzies in the 1960s and dealt with every serving Australian prime minister since Gough Whitlam.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Yunupingu was a great Australian, a national treasure and a leading figure in delivering the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

“Yunupingu walked in two worlds with authority, power and grace,” he said.

“With his passing, consider what we have lost. A leader. A statesman.”

The Northern Land Council said Yunupingu had a special place at the heart of the powerful body he chaired for almost half its 50-year history.

“Those days were tough. But he was tougher. Governments and everyone opposed us all the way. He took the fight to the streets, to Canberra and to the High Court many times,” chair Samuel Bush-Blanasi said.

Indigenous academic Marcia Langton said Yunupingu touched many people with his gracious leadership and kindness.

“People turned to him for advice because of his finely honed political and strategic skills. The great quality he had was kindness,” she told ABC Radio.

“He encouraged Aboriginal leaders … to set goals such as constitutional recognition and find a way to achieve it.”

The Central Land Council said Yunupingu would be remembered as one of the nation’s greatest Aboriginal leaders.

“Mr Yunupingu devoted his life to fighting for our land rights and our right to determine our own affairs,” chair Matthew Palmer said.

Yunupingu was a strong advocate for the voice to parliament and one of the Indigenous leaders who in 1988 presented former prime minister Bob Hawke with a bark painting known as the Barunga Statement, calling for a treaty recognising prior ownership, continued occupation and sovereignty.

Yunupingu’s long and distinguished career started 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 to the Whitlam Government’s Royal Commission into NT land rights and worked with the Fraser government on the enactment of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.

A strong advocate for local employment and self-determination, Yunupingu set up a 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 was a revered master of the ceremonies and a keeper of the songlines of the Yolngu people.

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”.

“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.

“There will never be another like him.”