One of Australia’s most influential Indigenous leaders, Yunupingu, has died aged 74, his family said on Monday, months before a referendum on whether to recognise the community for the first time in the country’s constitution.
Yunupingu is best known as a land rights activist, who was involved in having traditional ownership documents recognised for the first time by Australia’s Parliament.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a statement called Yunupingu, whose family asked that his given name not be used after his death, in keeping with Aboriginal tradition, “one of the greatest Australians” and a “national treasure”.
“Yunupingu walked in two worlds with authority, power and grace, and he worked to make them whole together,” Albanese said.
“With his passing consider what we have lost … A man who stood tall in his beloved country, and worked to lift our entire continent in the process,” he added.
Indigenous Australians settled in the country an estimated 65,000 years ago, but have faced persecution and widespread discrimination since colonisation by the British in 1788.
Born in 1948 in Australia’s remote Northern Territory, Yunupingu also worked with successive prime ministers to draft legislation on Indigenous rights.
“Our father 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,” his daughter Binmila Yunupingu said in a statement.
The Australian government last week took the first formal step towards holding a referendum to recognise Indigenous people in the constitution and set up an Indigenous “Voice to Parliament” to advise lawmakers on matters that affect their lives.
Albanese has staked his reputation on a referendum on the issue, to be held between October and December, with the vote expected to be closely fought.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, whose Liberal Party is yet to clarify its position on the referendum, called Yunupingu “one of our greatest Australians”.
