Condolence motion – Yunupingu | Prime Minister of Australia
Yunupingu walked in two worlds with authority, power and grace, and he worked to make them whole — together.
What he could see was not the reinvention of Australia, but the realisation of a greater one.
With his passing, consider what we have lost.
A leader. A statesman.
A painter. A dancer. A singer and musician who always carried his father’s clapsticks and felt the power they carried within them.
Australian of the Year in 1978. Member of the Order of Australia. National treasure.
A remarkable member of a remarkable family.
A great Yolngu man. An extraordinary Australian.
A man who stood tall in his beloved country, and worked to lift our entire continent in the process.
Yunupingu understood a fundamental truth: if you want to make your voice count, you have to make sure that it is heard.
He made sure with the sheer power of his advocacy for land rights.
He made sure when he helped draft the Yirrkala Bark Petitions, which delivered such a powerful message that resounded within the walls of our nation’s Parliament.
And he made sure when he took part in that masterclass of concise and unifying eloquence, the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
As he put it: “At Uluru we started a fire, a fire we hope burns bright for Australia.”
He fought so hard for reconciliation and was let down every time.
At Garma last year, after I announced the draft of the constitutional recognition provisions and confirmed the Government would propose a referendum during this term, he took me aside, and he asked me, “Are you serious this time?” I replied: “Yes, we’re going to do it.”
When I spoke with him just before the end, on the very day that we announced the words in the legislation that have been brought before this Parliament, I told him I was hopeful we would get there. He responded, “You spoke truth.” Three powerful words that will forever be with me.
And this brought him some comfort, as did his totems of fire and baru, the saltwater crocodile, which watched over him in his final days.
Now Yunupingu is gone, but the gurtha — the great tongue of flame and truth with which spoke to us — is still here. And it lights the path ahead for us.
He saw what was going on around him as clearly, just as he did when he turned his gaze within. In his own words:
“My inner life is that of the Yolngu song cycles, the ceremonies, the knowledge, the law and the land. This is yothu yindi. Balance. Wholeness. Completeness.
A world designed in perfection, founded on the beautiful simplicity of a mother and her newborn child; as vibrant and as dynamic as the estuary where the saltwaters meet the freshwaters, able to give you everything you need.”
He belongs to all of that now.
Yunupingu’s fire will keep burning for us. We see it in the passion and wisdom and determination of remarkable leaders like Marcia Langton, Noel Pearson, Tom Calma, and our own Patrick Dodson and Linda Burney.
And we see it in our wonderful Northern Territory representatives. His local members, Marion Scrymgour, in this House, and Senator Malarndirri McCarthy.
We could feel it in the poignant, powerful tributes they paid to a man who taught them so much. And we can see it in the simple truth that the finest tribute we can offer to Yunupingu’s memory is within our grasp.
Our hearts go out especially to the Yolngu, the Gumatj clan, and the great Yunupingu family. To all who loved him, and to all who were moved by him, to all there who have gazed out to where the Gulf of Carpentaria meets the sky.
We will never again hear his voice anew, but his words – and indeed his legacy – will keep speaking to us.
Yunupingu now walks in another place, but he has left such great footsteps for us to follow here in this one.
I sincerely hope that we do just that.