Digital Commons Network^™

Yolngu Studies: A Case Study Of Aboriginal Community Engagement, Michael Christie

Service Learning, General

The forty or more different clan groups of Australian Aboriginal people who Jive on or near the coast and islands of north-east Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory, are collectively known as Yolngu. Yolngu law dictates that all marriages must be outside the clan group, a principle which has given rise to complex ceremonial and economic exchange relationships among quite separate groups. Consequently, Yolngu have a strong tradition of negotiation across cultural boundaries s, while sharing carefully and respectfully with non-Yolngu was already an established practice before the Europeans arrived, as Yolngu worked for, and traded with Macassans who came …