Australia: Aboriginal land rights campaigner Yunupingu dies

One of the most prominent Aboriginal leaders in Australia, Yunupingu, has died at the age of 74, his family said on Monday.

Yunupingu played a pivotal role in the fight for Indigenous land rights during the 1960s and 1970s.

'Driven by a vision'

Yunupingu helped draft the Yirrkala bark petitions — the first Indigenous documents to be accepted by the Australian Parliament.

He was recognized as a "national living treasure" in 1998.

His daughter, Binmila Yunupingu, said on Monday he was "driven by a vision for the future of this nation, his people's place in the nation, and the rightful place for Aboriginal people everywhere."

Yunupingu belonged to the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land, a remote corner of the Northern Territory. Aboriginal people are thought to have lived on the continent for at least 65,000 years (with some estimates closer to 100,000 years) making theirs the oldest continually living culture today.

Prime Minister pays tribute

Australia is months away from holding a referendum to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in its constitution, and to establish an Indigenous Voice to Parliament that would advise lawmakers on issues relating to these communities.

"Yunupingu walked in two worlds with authority, power, and grace, and he worked to make them whole — together," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement on Monday.

"What he could see was not the reinvention of Australia, but the realization of a greater one."

Opposition leader Peter Dutton called Yunupingu "one of our greatest Australians."

zc/rc (Reuters, AFP, dpa)