Näku Dhäruk - The Bark Petitions

How the People of Yirrkala Changed the Course of Australian Democracy.

Winner, Queensland Literary Awards: University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award, 2025
Winner, Northern Territory History Award, 2025

Näku Dhäruk is the story of a founding document in Australian democracy and the trailblazers who made it.  In 1963, a year of agitation for civil rights worldwide, the Yolŋu of northeast Arnhem Land created the Yirrkala Bark Petitions: Näku Dhäruk ‘The land grew a tongue’ and the land-rights movement was born. It is also a pulsating picture of the ancient and enduring culture of Australia’s first peoples. 

‘This is officially the first history of the Uluru Statement era: the very messy story of power, subjugation and co-existence told by a brilliant historian..... The genesis of the right to be heard started with a bark petition.’ Prof. Megan Davis, Scientia Professor & Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law, UNSW

Pages: 618, Paperback 

Published: 2024