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] The Yan-nhangu-speaking Yolngu people are the traditional owners of Milingimbi and its surrounding seas and islands. [3] In 1923, the Methodist Overseas Mission established a mission on the island, [1] [4] which attracted Aboriginal people from eastern clan groups. They included Gupapuyŋu- and Djambarrpuyŋu-, as well as Wangurri- and Warramirri-speaking people. [3] Thomas Theodor Webb (1885-1948) [5] headed the mission in the 1920s. [6]
The island was bombed by the Japanese during World War II [7] 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]
Edgar Almond Wells was superintendent at the mission in the 1950s. Like Webb before him, he was interested in the Yolngu people's art, not only for the income it brought to the mission when sold, but also as means to better understand the Indigenous people's culture. The Musée d'ethnographie de Genève in Switzerland holds a wooden carving of a cormorant (wurran), a clan totem collected by Wells. [5]
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] [4]
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. [8]
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. [9]
Text by Dr Luke Taylor, AIATSIS - reproduce with permission from the Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia .
12°05′42″S134°53′35″E / 12.095°S 134.893°E
Islands of the Northern Territory | |
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