Milingimbi Island, also Yurruwi, is the largest island of the Crocodile Islands group off the coast of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia.
Milingimbi Island, also Yurruwi, is the largest island of the Crocodile Islands group off the coast of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia.
Milingimbi lies approximately 440 kilometres (270 mi) east of Darwin and 200 kilometres (120 mi) west of Nhulunbuy. [1]
Aboriginal people have occupied the area for more than 40,000 years. It was an important ritual centre for the great ceremonies conducted by the indigenous inhabitants. [2] In 1923, the Methodist Overseas Mission established a mission on the island, [1] which attracted Aboriginal people from eastern clan groups. They included Gupapuyŋu- and Djambarrpuyŋu-, as well as Wangurri- and Warramirri-speaking people. The Yan-nhangu-speaking Yolngu people are the traditional owners of Milingimbi and its surrounding seas and islands. [3]
The island was bombed by the Japanese during World War II [4] and most of its population moved to nearby Elcho Island. After the war, the island continued to be used as a Royal Australian Air Force base, before the missionaries returned in 1951. [1] The mission administered the island until 1974, after which management was transferred to Milingimbi Community Incorporated. In 2008 Milingimbi, became part of the East Arnhem Regional Council, which took over local government. [1]
English is a second, third or fourth language for most Aboriginal residents of Milingimbi. A successful bilingual program of the Milingimbi CEC, started in 1974, was stopped. Bilingual education continues on some of the surrounding outstations, run by traditional owners concerned to support the linguistic, cultural and biological diversity of the Crocodile Islands. To that end, the Yan-nhangu traditional owners have started the volunteer Crocodile Islands Rangers project to promote sustainable livelihood activities for local people in local languages. [5]
The island has its own airfield, Milingimbi Airport, with the airport call-sign YMGB, and is also the site of a Bureau of Meteorology weather station. The island also has its own ALPA (Arnhem Land Progress Aboriginal Corporation) store, post office and an art gallery. Milingimbi has a community library serviced by East Arnhem Regional Council. [6]
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Djalu Gurruwiwi, written Djalu, was a Yolngu man and leader from Arnhem Land in northern Australia. He was globally recognized for his acquired skill as a player, maker, and spiritual keeper of the yiḏaki, also referred to as the didgeridoo. As a respected artist with many of his works in several galleries, he aimed to spread his culture and traditions past his own community.
The Yolngu or Yolŋu are an aggregation of Aboriginal Australian people inhabiting north-eastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. Yolngu means "person" in the Yolŋu languages. The terms Murngin, Wulamba, Yalnumata, Murrgin and Yulangor were formerly used by some anthropologists for the Yolngu.
The Gove Peninsula is at the northeastern corner of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. The peninsula became strategically important during World War II when a Royal Australian Air Force base was constructed at what is now Gove Airport. The peninsula was involved in a famous court case known as the Gove land rights case, when local Yolngu people tried to claim native title over their traditional lands in 1971, after the Australian Government had granted a mineral lease to a bauxite mining company without consulting the local peoples. Today the land is owned by the Yolngu people.
The Garma Festival of Traditional Cultures (Garma) is Australia's largest Indigenous cultural gathering, taking place over four days each August in northeast Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory, Australia. Hosted by the Yothu Yindi Foundation, Garma is a celebration of the cultural traditions of the Yolngu people, and a major community gathering for the clans and families of the Arnhem Land region. The event showcases traditional miny'tji (art), ancient story-telling, manikay (song), and bunggul (dance). It is held at Gulkula, a significant Gumatj ceremonial site about 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the township of Nhulunbuy, attracts more than 2500 guests each year and is often sold out months in advance.
Yirrkala is a small community in East Arnhem Region, Northern Territory, Australia, 18 kilometres (11 mi) southeast of the large mining town of Nhulunbuy, on the Gove Peninsula in Arnhem Land. Its population comprises predominantly Aboriginal Australians of the Yolngu people, and it is also home to a number of Mission Aviation Fellowship pilots and engineers based in Arnhem Land, providing air transport services.
Elcho Island, known to its traditional owners as Galiwin'ku (Galiwinku) is an island off the coast of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located at the southern end of the Wessel Islands group located in the East Arnhem Region. Galiwin'ku is also the name of the settlement where the island's largest community lives. Elcho Island formed part of the traditional lands of the Yan-nhaŋu, according to Norman Tindale. According to J. C. Jennison, the Aboriginal inhabitants were the Dhuwal, who called themselves the Kokalango Mala (mala=clan.)
Yolŋu Matha, meaning the 'Yolŋu tongue', is a linguistic family that includes the languages of the Yolngu, the indigenous people of northeast Arnhem Land in northern Australia. The ŋ in Yolŋu is pronounced as the ng in singing.
The Crocodile Islands are a group of islands belonging to the Yan-nhaŋu people of the Northern Territory of Australia. They are located off the coast of Arnhem Land in the Arafura Sea.
The Nhangu language (Nhaŋu), also Yan-nhaŋu (Jarnango) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Yan-nhaŋu people, inhabitants of the Crocodile Islands off the coast of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. The Yan-nhaŋu language belongs to the Yolŋu Matha language group of the Yolŋu people of Arnhem Land in northern Australia. The varieties of the two moieties are (a) Gorlpa and (b) Yan-nhangu.
The Burarra people, also referred to as the Gidjingali, are an Aboriginal Australian people in and around Maningrida, in the heart of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Opinions have differed as to whether the two names represent different tribal realities, with the Gidjingali treated as the same as, or as a subgroup of the Burarra, or as an independent tribal grouping. For the purposes of this encyclopedia, the two are registered differently, though the ethnographic materials on both may overlap with each other.
Laurie Baymarrwangga (Gawany) Baymarrwaŋa was the senior Aboriginal traditional owner of the Malarra estate, which includes Galiwin'ku, Dalmana, Murruŋga, Brul-brul and the Ganatjirri Maramba salt water surrounding the islands and inclusive of some 300 other named sites. She devoted her life to the intergenerational transmission of the ancestral language and knowledge of her homelands on the Crocodile Islands, for the benefit of future generations.
The Djinang are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory.
The Yan-nhaŋu, also known as the Nango, are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. They have strong sociocultural connections with their neighbours, the Burarra, on the Australian mainland.
Ian Keen is an Australian anthropologist, whose research interests cover Yolngu kinship structures and religion, Aboriginal land rights and economies, and language.
Gali Yalkarriwuy Gurruwiwi (1942–2020) was an internationally acclaimed Aboriginal Australian artist from Elcho Island (Galiwin'ku), an island off the coast of Northeast Arnhem Land. Gali was a Yolngu Mala leader and Gälpu clan representative, a clan group of the Dhuwa moiety, as well as a prominent member of the Galiwin'ku Uniting Church. He was best known for his Morning Star poles which have been featured in international exhibitions in London and the United States and for his unique melding of traditional Yolngu beliefs and Christian theology.
Mithinarri Gurruwiwi (c.1929–1976) was an Aboriginal Australian painter of the Gälpu clan of the Yolngu people of north-eastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. His first name is sometimes spelt Midinari, Mitinari, or Mithinari.
Dick Binyinyuwuy Djarrankuykuy (c. 1928–1982) was a leading Aboriginal artist from the island of Milingimbi off the coast of the Northern Territory of Australia. He belonged to the Djarrankuykuy clan of the Djambarrpuyngu people. During World War II he was among the group of Aboriginal men enlisted by Squadron Leader Donald Thomson for the Northern Territory Special Reconnaissance Unit to protect Australia's northern shoreline from Japanese invasion. He became an artist after the war, in the 1950s.
The Garrangali Band, also known as Garrangali, is an Aboriginal Australian musical group from the tiny homeland community, or outstation, of Baniyala in East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. Garrangali means "home of the crocodile" in the Yolngu language, in which they sing some lyrics. Their musical style has been variously described as reggae, saltwater reggae and saltwater ska.
Tom Djäwa was an Aboriginal Australian artist. Djäwa worked in the mediums of bark painting and carving. Djäwa was one of the most important artists from the island of Milingimbi, and his works are held in museums and private collections around the world.
Djon Mundine is an Aboriginal Australian is a member of the Bandjalung people of northern New South Wales with an extended career as a curator, activist and writer. His career has helped revolutionize the criticism and display of contemporary Aboriginal art. He worked as art and craft advisor at Milingimbi in the Crocodile Islands in 1979 and curator at Bula-bula Arts in Ramingining in Arnhem Land where he originated Australia’s greatest artwork, the Aboriginal Memorial, on permanent display at the National Gallery of Australia.
