Board

26 Bäpurru (clans) of North East Arnhem Land

North East Arnhem Land Aboriginal Corporations Members consists of one Dilak of each of the 26 Bäpurru’s of North East Arnhem Land. Aboriginal people have inhabited East Arnhem Land for more than 40,000 years. Yolngu (person) is the name of a group of intermarrying clans who live in the main townships and surrounding homelands, and whose members speak mainly Yolngu Matha but there are different dialects. All of Arnhem Land was proclaimed as an Aboriginal reserve in 1931, the Yolngu people have been recognised as holding native title rights to parts of East Arnhem Land.


Yolngu comprises 26 different Bäpurru (clans), differentiated by the land, languages, and dialects they speak, but generally sharing overall similarities in the ritual life and hunter-gathering economic and cultural lifestyles (each clan members own areas of land and waters). The clan system is an intricate and highly sophisticated means of acknowledging family ties, territorial claims, and other social issues. This provides a continuous and resilient social structure enabling traditional political and cultural practices to be maintained. 


Macassan contact

The first remembered non-Aboriginal people to experience East Arnhem Land were traders from Macassar. Yolngu engaged in extensive trade annually with Macassan fishermen at least two centuries before contact with Europeans. They made yearly visits to harvest repang and pearls, paying Yolngu with goods such as knives, metal, canoes, tobacco, and pipes. The Macassan boats would arrive at the East Arnhem coast on the monsoon winds. Here they would camp for several months. In 1906, the South Australian Government did not renew the Macassans’ permit to harvest repang, and the disruption caused economic losses for the regional Yolngu economy.

European contact

Yolngu has known about Europeans before the arrival of British in Australia through their contact with Macassan traders which probably began around the sixteenth century. Their word for European people (Balanda) is derived from the Macassar language via the Malay “orang belanda” (Dutch person). Christian missionaries made the first long-term settlements in the region, starting at Roper River in 1908, then in 1916 to the strip of sand-fly-infested mud and grass which makes up the island of Milingimbi.

Clans

Share by: