Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was with great sadness that I learnt of the passing of Dr Yunupingu AO on 3 April this year. It wasn't unexpected, Yunupingu's health had been declining, but, nevertheless, when the news came through for certain that he had passed, the tributes and memorials poured in.

He made a towering contribution to Indigenous issues and to the broader affairs of our nation. He was pre-eminent in First Nations land rights over his lifetime. He was a Yolngu man, a leader of the Gumatj clan from Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory. In 1978, he was made Australian of the Year. He was made a member of the Order of Australia in 1985, and he was a long-term chair of the Northern Land Council. A friend of mine worked closely with him during that time, and I'll pass on her reflections later. Above all, he was a proud and fierce warrior for his people. He forcefully engaged with power across politics to drive better outcomes for his people.

I had honour of meeting Yunupingu at the Garma festival in Arnhem Land in August 2007. I was working as a patrol commander for NORFORCE at that time, and that Garma festival and the words of Dr Yunupingu really opened my mind to a whole range of things.

A dark cloud was hanging over that festival when we met. The Howard government had launched the Northern Territory intervention two months earlier, and Dr Yunupingu led opposition to this intervention. He demanded consultation. It affected every aspect of his people's lives. He wrote in response to inquiries from the government about his criticism:

The answer is simple. I told him I was a landowner and leader and he had not spoken to me. He had acquired my land and sought control of my life without talking to me, let alone seeking my consent. Nor had he spoken to the hundreds of people like me throughout the NT who spent their lives coping with Third World conditions, a lack of services and the abject failures of governments. That simple failure to consult, I told him, would eventually undermine his good intentions. The conditions that hurt children and that he was pledging to fix would remain while he sought to impose a solution.

Very wise and powerful words indeed.

Since then, and with my entry into parliament, I've sought to listen to Dr Yunupingu over the various Garma festivals and times that I have spent in Arnhem Land, and to other First Nations leaders who are trying to drive real change. But it is that failure to consult that has held back progress.

Dr Yunupingu's success in building training facilities on his clan land and developing business enterprises is key for economic development across the Northern Territory. There has been real leadership, and we saw that exemplified with the successful launch of rockets by Equatorial Launch Australia from the Arnhem Space Centre. It really highlights the breadth of Dr Yunupingu's vision. The Gumatj clan, with Dr Yunupingu's leadership, are also open to engagement with Defence in a variety of ways. His people are truly the custodians of the land, the sea and the sky, and I'm proud to be part of a government that is working to finally realise his aspiration at a broader level. That's to have a successful referendum on the Voice to Parliament, followed by other elements of the Uluru statement—that is, treaty and truth.

As Dr Yunupingu wrote:

I am seeing now that too much of the past is for nothing. I have walked the corridors of power; I have negotiated and cajoled and praised and begged prime ministers and ministers, travelled the world and been feted; I have opened the doors to men of power and prestige; I have had a place at the table of the best and the brightest in the Australian nation—and at times success has seemed so close, yet it always slips away. And behind me, in the world of my father, the Yolngu world is always under threat, being swallowed up by whitefellas.

We can now deliver the Voice for First Nations people that Dr Yunupingu feared would slip through his hands.

I mentioned a friend of mine who worked closely with him when he was the Chair of the Northern Land Council, Morag Hocknull, who wanted me to send a simple message: 'Yunupingu's spirit may be at rest, but his legacy will live on—and our family memories will endure forever.' She says:

During my time with him and the NLC, we worked together and travelled throughout the Top End and Interstate to spread the importance of Aboriginal Land Rights, the rights of the traditional owners and the message was from the heart, was strong and was continuous.

Vale, Yunupingu.

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