Naku Dharuk The Bark Petitions

WINNER, Queensland Literary Awards- University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award, 2025
WINNER, Northern Territory History Award, 2025
SHORTLISTED, Prime Minister's LIterary Award, Australian History, 2025
SHORTLISTED, Victorian Premier's Literary Award, Non-Fiction, 2025
SHORTLISTED, Age Book of the Year, Non-fiction, 2025
SHORTLISTED, NSW History Awards, Australian History Prize, 2025
SHORTLISTED, The Australian Political Book of the Year, 2025


'A masterpiece.' Thomas Mayo

'The most painstaking and beautiful reconstruction of mission life...feels like a revolutionarily good piece of history...exhilarating to read...so gripping.' Annabel Crabb


In this engaging narrative, Wright follows the story of petitions on bark created by the Yirrkala community in Arnhem Land in 1963, protesting bauxite mining on traditional lands.

In 1963-a year of agitation for civil rights worldwide-the Yol?u of northeast Arnhem Land created the Yirrkala Bark Petitions- Naku Dharuk. 'The land grew a tongue' and the land-rights movement was born.

Naku Dharuk is the story of a founding document in Australian democracy and the trailblazers who made it. It is also a pulsating picture of the ancient and enduring culture of Australia's first peoples.

And it is a masterful, groundbreaking history.

Clare Wright's Democracy Trilogy began with The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka and continued with You Daughters of Freedom. It concludes with this compulsively readable account of a momentous episode in our shared story.

PRAISE-

'A landmark history.' Mark McKenna

'Clare Wright is the most remarkable and striking voice working on recovering the lost and forgotten pages of Australian history. Her work, as accessible as it is scholarly, is of the greatest importance.' William Dalrymple

'A masterful and definitive account of one of the most important political documents in Australian history. Wright brings to life this moving story of unwavering Yolngu resistance and the enduring legacy of their political actions.' Larissa Behrendt, Distinguished Professor, UTS

'What distinguishes Wright's account of the disorder among settler authorities is the length, detail and intimacy of her narration.' Conversation

'The non-fiction book to know about...An essential account of the land rights movement and beyond.' Qantas Magazine

'Wright is creating an entirely new narrative, a reading of Australian history grounded in her own experience, a story only she is qualified to tell. It is a powerful account, and a weighty one.' Inside Story

'A slim but deeply rendered exploration of a family after the unthinkable happens...What's so quietly devastating about The Burrow is just this very thing- the family slowly becoming known to themselves, each other and us...From a remove, like Fiver the rabbit , we watch and wait for them to get there, holding our breath all the while.' Herald