When the Waters Will Be One: Hereditary performance traditions and the Yolŋu re-invention of post-Barunga intercultural discourses

Journal of Australian Studies No. 84, 2005: 15–30

Opening

ON 12 JUNE 1988, amid a year of state-sponsored celebrations to mark the bicentenary of the establishment of the British Colony of New South Wales, Prime Minister Bob Hawke attended a festival of sport and culture hosted by the small Indigenous community of Barunga. There, he was presented with a joint statement by Wenten Rubuntja, as chair of the Central Land Council, and Galarrwuy Yunupiŋu, as chair of the Northern Land Council. Known as The Barunga Statement, this document called on the Australian Government to negotiate with ‘the indigenous owners and occupiers of Australia’ to make a treaty recognising their prior ownership, continued occupation and sovereignty, and affirming their human rights and freedom.

Hawke’s initial response to The Barunga Statement was a promise to facilitate the completion of these negotiations within the life of his Parliament. However, once it became apparent that this undertaking had failed to garner broader parliamentary support, Yolŋu sought recourse not through another statement but, rather, through the release of a popular song. This song would capture the imaginations of an entire generation of Australians and bring international acclaim to a little-known band named Yothu Yindi from the remote former mission town of Yirrkala in northeast Arnhem Land. This song, ‘Treaty’, was the first by any Indigenous band, and certainly any band from Arnhem Land, to top the Australian charts, and remains a well-known reminder of this as-yet unresolved episode in Australian politics.

An Invitation for Racial Social Change