Naku Dharuk The Bark Petitions

‘Vividly alive and combining the personal with an extraordinary depth of research and sophisticated scholarship...a book that should be read by all Australians.’

Judges of the Book of the Year Award, 2026 NSW Literary Awards

‘The non-fiction book to know about…An essential account of the land rights movement and beyond.’

Qantas Magazine

‘Of monumental importance.’

The Age

‘A story that cannot be forgotten (by) one of Australia's most revered historians.’

National Indigenous Times

‘Get the third in this trilogy. Get all of them. Give yourself a year to read them. They’re fantastic, they’re gripping, and beautifully presented and written.’

James Valentine, ABC Radio NSW

‘A huge contribution to our national history, and it really is a page turner.’

Julian Morrow, Sunday Extra ABC Radio National

‘A primer on the elegant, pragmatic, complex otherness of Indigenous thought, culture and law…generous, rigorously argued and artfully curated.’

The Australian

‘One of the outstanding works of Australian historical writing—one intended for a wide audience—so far this century.’

Frank Bongiorno, Australian Book Review

‘It will become a classic, a really important record of an astonishing and so little-known moment.’

Kate Grenville

‘The story of Australia’s enviable democracy did not end with federation; and how could it when our first Australians’ history was overlooked? More than half a century later the people of Yirrkala wrote and presented the Naku Dharuk (the bark petitions) to the federal parliament, the first step towards land rights. These ancient peoples in their own unique way finally penetrated the walls of our colonial society, placing Indigenous Australians firmly in the narrative and re-booting the democracy story. Clare Wright’s masterful work has ensured this remarkable event will forever be understood and properly appreciated.’

Barrie Cassidy

‘Clare Wright has written something both intimate and enormous. It will be marvelled over in a hundred years.’

Hugh Riminton

‘A dazzling conclusion to [the] Democracy Trilogy…Both a triumph of storytelling and a near-unparalleled feat of two-worlds thinking, this book—and the Trilogy—will stand as a milestone in Australian history.’

Yves Rees, Sydney Morning Herald

‘Magnificent…not only tells a vital tale of Australian democracy but offers so many insights into the world view that creates such great Yolŋu art.’

Aboriginal Art Directory

‘Näku Dhäruk reaches back toward the Yolŋu people with love, respect, admiration, and the gift of truth-telling and recognition…an immensely valuable resource.’

Sydney Review of Books

‘Ground-breaking yet surprisingly propulsive...Narrated through the eyes of its many characters, it manages like no other narrative — save perhaps the specialised work of anthropologists — to impart a palpable sense of the intricacy and depth of the relationship between indigenous identity and the land itself.’

Sunday Times South Africa