The Quest for Community Control at Yirrkala School

Abstract

The Yolŋu goal of community control of education at Yirrkala was a key indicator of their aim to regain their right to determine and manage their lives and their country of north-east Arnhem Land. The 1963 and 1968 Yirrkala Bark Petitions conveyed a clear assertion of Yolŋu rights to their land, their languages, their traditions and their culture. It was an unequivocal message that Yolŋu had not abandoned their claim to the right to self-determine their lives including control of the education of their children. Twenty years later, during the 1980s, the vision to provide Yolŋu guidance, direction and control in their children’s education was continuing to evolve and was coming to fruition. We see here a record of the expressed wishes of the Yolŋu and their efforts to put into place the integral pieces of the plan for the growth and consolidation of community control of education at Yirrkala and Homeland Centres. Bilingual education was a development that produced a number of outcomes that directly contributed to community control of education.