Qualla: Barunga, Northern Territory

Barunga, Northern Territory: Introduction

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kari from Turku, Finland, CC BY-SA 2.0. In June 1988, as Australia was celebrating its bicentennial, Prime Minister Bob Hawke drove into the bush to attend a festival at Barunga. He was presented with a painting — 1.2 metres square, on composite wood — by Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Wenten Rubuntja. The Barunga Statement, as it became known, called for a treaty between the Australian federal government and Indigenous Australians. Hawke said he wanted one concluded by 1990. It didn't happen. Three years later, in December 1991, his last act as prime minister was to hang the painting in Parliament House in Canberra, one minute before Paul Keating was sworn in. The statement is still there. The treaty is still unfinished. And every June, Barunga holds its festival.

Image: Kari from Turku, Finland | CC BY-SA 2.0

Barunga, Northern Territory: Country That Carries Its Age

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Harold Snell, Public domain. The Jawoyn people — and before the community took this name, the Mangarrayi, Ngalakan, and others whose country overlaps here — have lived in this region for thousands of years. The name Barunga is relatively recent: the community was known as Beswick Creek, then Tandangal, then ...

Image: Harold Snell | Public domain

Barunga, Northern Territory: Tandangal and Resettlement

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bauple58, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1947, the Tandangal Native Settlement was established about 13 kilometres from Beswick Station — the Jawoyn word dangdangdal giving it its name. The local people were not consulted about the location, nor about how they would be moved there. The following year, the community s...

Image: Bauple58 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Barunga, Northern Territory: The Festival

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Hall42, CC BY-SA 4.0. Bangardi Robert Lee, a leader of the Bagala clan of the Jawoyn people, initiated the Barunga Sport and Cultural Festival in 1985. He died in 2005, having created something that outlasted him. The festival is held on the Queen's Birthday long weekend each June and draws over 4,000...

Image: Peter Hall42 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Barunga, Northern Territory: Treaty, Statement, Song

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Hall42, CC BY-SA 4.0. Yothu Yindi released "Treaty" in February 1991, written by Mandawuy Yunupingu and his older brother Galarrwuy — along with collaborators including Peter Garrett and Paul Kelly — to mark the years of inaction since Hawke's promise. The song became one of the most significant piece...

Image: Peter Hall42 | CC BY-SA 4.0