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ABC News
ABC News
National

Historic Bark Petition artefact returned to traditional owners after 59-year travels around Australia

Traditional owner Michael Gumana handing over the petition to undergo conservation work before being returned to Yirrkala. (ABC Kimberley: Tallulah Bieundurry)

An invaluable piece of Aboriginal heritage unaccounted for by its community since 1963 has been rediscovered and returned to its Northern Territory traditional owners, after it spent the past 29 years hanging in a Kimberley woman's home.

The Yirrkala Bark Petitions are a series of petitions created by the Yolngu people in the early 1960s, seeking compensation and recognition of traditional lands on the Gove Peninsula in North East Arnhem Land.

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