Näku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions: How the People of Yirrkala Changed the Course of Australian Democracy
Title: Näku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions: How the People of Yirrkala Changed the Course of Australian Democracy
Author: Clare Wright
Publisher: Text Publishing
Shortlist: Non-Fiction
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.
Näku Dhäruk is the story of a founding document in Australian democracy and the trailblazers who made it. It is also a pulsating picture of the ancient and enduring culture of Australia’s first peoples.
And it is a masterful, groundbreaking history.
Clare Wright’s Democracy Trilogy began with The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka and continued with You Daughters of Freedom. It concludes with this compulsively readable account of a momentous episode in our shared story.
Judges’ report
Completing her monumental ‘Democracy’ trilogy, Clare Wright’s Näku Dhäruk tells the story of the Yirrkala Bark Petitions, the first traditional documents to be recognised by the Australian parliament, and a hitherto underexplored turning point in the land rights movement. Impressive in the breadth and depth of its scholarship as well as its formidable prose, Wright adeptly and sensitively blends history and narrative to make a compelling case for the Bark Petitions to be considered – taught, learnt, and known – alongside Australia’s more familiar foundational events. Näku Dhäruk is an important and timely contribution to redressing ongoing colonial injustice and cultural amnesia.
About the Author
Photo by Susan Papazian
Clare Wright
VPLA book photography by Sarah Walker
The 2025 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards are proudly supported by the Victorian Government through the Community Support Fund and Creative Victoria.