60 years old, the Yirrkala Bark Petitions are one of our founding documents – so why don't we know more about them?
- Written by Clare Wright, Professor of History, La Trobe University
It would be interesting to learn who thought up this gimmick.
On August 16 1963, Cecil Lambert, the Secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Territories, scribbled these words next to a news clipping of a day-old article in the Canberra Times. “Aboriginal Petition on Bark” read the headline. “Novel Plea by Tribal Group”.
T...
