Aboriginal leader demands return of painting

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/aboriginal-leader-demands-return-of-painting/2006/01/20/1137734151812.html

The Barunga Statement is handed over in 1988.

By Lindsay Murdoch

January 21, 2006

GALARRWUY Yunupingu, the most influential Aboriginal leader in the Northern Territory, has
called for the return of the Barunga Statement, a symbolic painting hanging in Federal
Parliament's Great Hall.

Mr Yunupingu said that the painting he presented to former prime minister Bob Hawke in 1988 should be returned to Barunga, a tiny NT settlement, to protest against the failure of successive governments to tackle Aboriginal disadvantage.

"We will unhook the painting that I and other indigenous leaders painted, lift it into a traditional log coffin and return it to Barunga where we will hold a sorry funeral ceremony," Mr Yunupingu said.

"We will dig a hole and bury it. It will be a protest but I also hope that it can represent a new

start for Aboriginal people."

Mr Yunupingu, a former Australian of the Year, said other indigenous leaders supported the

move that will embarrass the Howard Government.

"We feel the aspirations of Aboriginal Australians who want to better themselves have been

betrayed," he said. "I see a head-on attack on the rights of Aboriginal people, including the Land