{{Short description|Coastal area in East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}} {{Use Australian English|date=May 2011}} '''Yalangbara''' is a coastal area in the East Arnhem (Miwatj) region of Australia's Northern Territory, around {{cvt|35|km}} south of Nhulunbuy, the largest town in the area. It is on the country of the Rirratjingu clan of the Yolŋu people, and is one of the most significant cultural areas for the Yolŋu because of its role in the creation story of the Rirratjingu clan, based on the Djang'kawu ancestors.
In Yolŋu terminology, Yalangbara is a ''yaku bathala'' (literally "big name"), a term for a general area that comprises various named localities, comprising the area south of Yirrkala including the Yalangbara Peninsula (also known as the '''Port Bradshaw Peninsula''' or '''Port Bradshaw''') as well as '''Lalawuy Bay''', adjacent coastline and the nearby islands such as '''Wapilina Island'''. It covers around {{cvt|210|km2}} of land and coastal waters. However, the name can be applied to different areas, depending upon context; it may refer to the small beach site related to the Djang'kawu myth (see below), or the whole eastern side of the peninsula.
== Geography == Yalangbara covers around {{cvt|210|km2}} of almost untouched land and coastal waters.<ref name=nmayalangbara>{{cite web | title=The Yalangbara region | website=National Museum of Australia | url=https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/yalangbara/yalangbara-region | access-date=18 July 2021}}</ref> It lies around {{cvt|35|km}} south of Nhulunbuy, the largest town in East Arnhem Land.<ref name=west2008p31>{{cite book |first1=Banduk| last1=Marika |last2=West |first2=Margie |author-link=Banduk Marika|title=Yalangbara : art of the Djang'kawu |date=2008 |publisher=Charles Darwin University Press |location=Darwin, N.T. |isbn=9780980384673 |page=31}}</ref>
The main beach, known as Yalangbara beach (or just Yalangbara, depending on context<ref name=nmayalangbara/>), is a white sand beach located on Yalangbara Peninsula (also known as the Port Bradshaw Peninsula or Cape Arnhem Peninsula) and faces east into the Gulf of Carpentaria.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Prowse |first1=Geoff |last2=Zaar |first2=Ursula |title=Water resources of East Arnhem Land |url=https://hdl.handle.net/10070/213103 |website=Territory Stories |publisher=Northern Territory Government |access-date=30 August 2020 |location=Darwin |pages=8|hdl=10070/213103 }}</ref> The community of Bawaka is also located on this peninsula. The area is dominated by one of the largest coastal dune systems in the Northern Territory, at {{cvt|16|km}} long, up to {{cvt|2|km}} wide,<ref name=west2008p31/> from {{cvt|20|m}} to {{cvt|80|m}} high, running down the centre of the peninsula.<ref name=nmayalangbara/>
Access is via a {{cvt|22|km|adj=on}} bush track from Yirrkala.<ref name=nmayalangbara/>
== Aboriginal significance == Yalangbara lies within the country of the Rirratjingu clan of the Yolŋu people.<ref>{{cite web |last1=McLennan |first1=Chris |title=Banduk Marika says ancestral stories retain their relevance today |url=https://www.katherinetimes.com.au/story/6812068/banduk-marika-says-ancestral-stories-retain-their-relevance-today/ |website=Katherine Times |date=9 July 2020 |access-date=30 August 2020}}</ref>
In Yolŋu terminology, Yalangbara is a ''yaku bathala'' (literally "big name"), a term for a general area that comprises various named localities,<ref name=west2008p31/><ref name=wam/> comprising the area south of Yirrkala including the Yalangbara Peninsula, aka Port Bradshaw (Peninsula) as well as the nearby islands, Lalawuy Bay and adjacent coastline.<ref name=wam>{{cite web | title=Yalangbara: art of the Djang'kawu|first1=Banduk| last1=Marika |last2=West |first2=Margie |author-link=Banduk Marika| website=Western Australian Museum | date=7 December 2010 | url=http://museum.wa.gov.au/whats-on/yalangbara/background-essay | access-date=18 July 2021}}</ref>
Yalangbara beach is important as the first site the mythical Djang'kawu siblings, two female and one male, reached on the Australian mainland. The sisters were the custodians of ceremonial law, and carried with them their digging sticks (''mawalan''<ref name=nma>{{cite web | title=The Marika family | website=National Museum of Australia | url=https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/yalangbara/marika-family}}</ref>), feathered headwear and sacred objects hidden in their basket and mats. The objects changed into various landforms along their route, and they created freshwater wells at Yalangbara by plunging their digging sticks into the sand, after which the digging sticks turned into a variety of plant species. There is still freshwater to be found under the sandy beach, and is believed to have healing properties.<ref name=wam/><ref>{{cite book |first1=Banduk| last1=Marika |last2=West |first2=Margie |author-link=Banduk Marika|title=Yalangbara : art of the Djang'kawu |date=2008 |publisher=Charles Darwin University Press |location=Darwin, N.T. |isbn=9780980384673 |page=35}}</ref><ref name=nmayalangbara/>
A site known as '''Balma''', high among the sand dunes, is of particular significance as it was here that the Djang'kawu sisters gave birth to the first of the Rirratjingu clan. Access to this site is restricted.<ref name=wam/> From Yalangbara the Djang'kawu travelled west, establishing the Dhuwa moiety of the Yolŋu people.<ref name=west2008p31/>
The Marika family, who trace their ancestry to the original Dhuwa moiety, are the traditional owners of the land, and they manage the area's rich biodiversity. They are also custodians of Djang’kawu law, which is expressed in ritual ceremonies and art. Many members of the family started producing paintings when they lived at the Yirrkala mission from 1935 onwards.<ref name=wam/>
The ''Yalangbara: art of the Djang’kawu'' touring exhibition, instigated by Banduk Marika and developed with the assistance of other family members and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory at Darwin, opened at the National Museum of Australia from 7 December 2010. This was the first major survey exhibition of the Marikas' work, and covers around 50 named sites in the Yalangbara peninsula that were traversed by the Djang’kawu journey.<ref name=wam/> It followed a 2008 monograph of the same name, edited by Margie West and produced in partnership with Banduk Marika and other members of the family.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Banduk| last1=Marika |author-link=Banduk Marika|last2=West |first2=Margie |title=Yalangbara : art of the Djang'kawu |date=2008 |publisher=Charles Darwin University Press |location=Darwin, N.T. |isbn=9780980384673 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-8ZdPgAACAAJ | access-date=18 July 2021}}</ref> Also at this exhibition, a film made by Ian Dunlop titled ''In Memory of Mawalan'', made in 1971 and released in 1983, was screened. The subject of the film was a ceremony organised by Wandjuk Marika in honour of his father Mawalan Marika, who had died in 1967, before the outcome of the Gove Land Rights Case in 1971. The ceremony and film notes the importance of the law laid out by the Djang’kawu sisters.<ref name=mawalan>{{cite web | title=In Memory of Malawan presented by Ian Dunlop|first1= Ian | last1 =Dunlop| first2 = Pip | last2 =Deveson | first3 = Peter | last3 =Thorley | publisher=National Museum of Australia | date=1 January 2018 | url=https://www.nma.gov.au/audio/uncategorised/in-memory-of-malawan-presented-by-ian-dunlop/transcripts/in-memory-of-malawan | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251223235458/https://www.nma.gov.au/audio/uncategorised/in-memory-of-malawan-presented-by-ian-dunlop/transcripts/in-memory-of-malawan | archive-date=23 December 2025 | url-status=live | access-date=23 December 2025| quote=Ian Dunlop, Pip Deveson and Dr Peter Thorley, 5 August 2011... This is an edited transcript typed from an audio recording... Date published: 01 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=In Memory of Mawalan | website=NFSA Online Shop | url=https://shop.nfsa.gov.au/in-memory-of-mawalan | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250806022809/https://shop.nfsa.gov.au/in-memory-of-mawalan | archive-date=6 August 2025 | url-status=live | access-date=24 December 2025}}</ref>
===Heritage listing=== Yalangbara was registered as an Aboriginal sacred site with the NT's Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority in 1983.<ref name=minding>{{cite book| title=Minding culture: Case studies on intellectual property and traditional cultural expressions| first=Terri|last=Janke| author-link=Terri Janke| date= 2003|publisher = World Intellectual Property Organization| series= Study No. 1| url=https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/tk/781/wipo_pub_781.pdf| pages=12| access-date=22 July 2021}}</ref>
Thanks to the work of Banduk Marika, her nephew Mawalan 2 Marika, anthropologist Geoffrey Bradshaw<ref name=wam/> and others, which included a detailed heritage assessment (2000),<ref name=minding/> Yalangbara was included for listing on the Australian Heritage Commission's Register of the National Estate in 2003.<ref name=flindersdoc>{{cite web|url= https://www.flinders.edu.au/content/dam/documents/about/citations/citation-marika-banduk-for-web.pdf| author=Flinders University| title=Citation for the Award of the Degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa: Dr B Marika| date=17 July 2021| quote=Amended 17 July 2021 – update to name | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200830211236/https://www.flinders.edu.au/content/dam/documents/about/citations/citation-marika-banduk-for-web.pdf| archive-date=30 August 2020|url-status=live| access-date=20 July 2021}}</ref>{{efn|This must refer to being listed for assessment only, as it still awaiting assessment in 2021.}} The Register of the National Estate was frozen in 2007, and {{as of|July 2021|lc=yes}} Yalangbara is not yet actually listed under the superseding Commonwealth Heritage List.<ref>{{cite web | title=Australia's Commonwealth Heritage List| website=Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment| publisher=Australian Government | url=http://www.environment.gov.au/ | access-date=20 July 2021}}</ref> Under the EPBC Act, the Minister for the Environment "determines which places the Australian Heritage Council will assess for the National Heritage List and Commonwealth Heritage List", and it has been listed for assessment by 30 June 2022.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/pages/8ac00639-6069-454e-a191-e6b8a3eed9a2/files/fpal-amalgamated-july2020.pdf| title= National Heritage List and Commonwealth Heritage List Assessments| author=Australian Government. Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment| date= 1 July 2020| access-date=20 July 2021}} 50px Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/ Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU)] licence. (See bottom of [http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/priority-assessment this page].)</ref> It was added to the "Finalised Priority Assessment List for the National Heritage List for 2018-19", with the area being defined as {{cvt|19,335|ha}} from Bawaka Road to Port Bradshaw, {{cvt|22|km}} south of Yirrkala. Its reasons for inclusion are described as follows:<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/pages/8ac00639-6069-454e-a191-e6b8a3eed9a2/files/fpal-nhl-2018-19.pdf| title= Finalised Priority Assessment List for the National Heritage List for 2018-19| author=Australian Government. Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment| date= 1 July 2020| access-date=20 July 2021}} 50px Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/ Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU)] licence. (See bottom of [http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/priority-assessment this page].)</ref>
"Yalangbara may have National Heritage values due to the: Yalangbara sand dunes and the Djang’kawu (Dhuwa moiety foundation story) including in the history and iconography of the Aboriginal land rights movement (Gove case 1963); the importance of the Makassan sites on Wapilina Island in the Yalangbara Peninsula; and the Carpets Case (1993){{efn|The trial actually took place in 1994.<ref name=nswed>{{cite web | title= Case study 4: 'The carpets case' | website=NSW Educational Standards Authority| date=1 May 2007 | url=https://ab-ed.nesa.nsw.edu.au/go/aboriginal-art/protecting-australian-indigenous-art/case-studies-of-copying-and-appropriation/case-study-4-the-carpets-case | access-date=21 July 2021| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302163205/https://ab-ed.nesa.nsw.edu.au/go/aboriginal-art/protecting-australian-indigenous-art/case-studies-of-copying-and-appropriation/case-study-4-the-carpets-case| url-status=live| archive-date= 2 March 2021}}</ref>}} to protect the intellectual property rights of Aboriginal artists' rights from the unauthorised reproduction of traditional Aboriginal designs."
==Flora and fauna== The sea provides habitat for rays, shellfish, crustaceans, trepang/beche-de-mer, saltwater crocodiles and many species of fish. There are significant populations of bridled and roseate terns and many other seabirds.<ref name=nmayalangbara/>
Threatened species including three plant, fourteen vertebrate and one butterfly species have been recorded at Yalangbara.<ref name=nmayalangbara/>
==Footnotes== {{notelist}}
== References == {{reflist}}
Category:Arnhem Land Category:Sacred natural sites