David Burrumarra

David Burrumarra (1917 – 13 October 1994) was a Yolŋu man who was a philosopher, diplomat and leader from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Life Burrumarra was born during the dry season at Wadanayu, a bible camp, on Galiwin'ku (Elcho Island). He was the son of Ganimburrngu (Lanygarra), and his wife Wanambiwuy; Wanambiwuy was a Bararrngu woman. On his birth Burrumarra became a member of the Warramirri tribe and he had totemic associations with the whale and octopus. In his mother's tongue Burrumarra refers the skeleton of the white-tiled stingray. Years later he began working as a shell cleaner and deckhand on the Tubumaro, a Japanese pearling ship, in the seas surrounding the Crocodile Islands.

In 1946, after the end of the war, Burrumarra moved back to Galiwin’ku at the request of his cousin Batangga (also recorded as Badanga) who was a Wangurri leader. There he was employed as a community liaison officer. One of his key strengths in this role was his ability to speak at least eight Yolŋu languages and English. While in this position he would also, for a small fee, use his typewriter to type up letters for community members; the novelty of this technology created considerable excitement. He was later the first Yolŋu teaching assistant at the school and taught Gupapuyngu language to the students there. While doing this he also travelled regularly with missionary Harold Shepherdson and they would fly to areas to establish outstations of the Methodist Missions and deliver supplies and conduct church services. In 1946 his wife Clara died and, in the late 1940s, he remarried Lawuk, a Galpu woman.

In a letter the Ronald Berndt in 1988 he wrote:

In 1962 Burrumarra travelled around Australia, following the passing of an amendment to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 in 1962 which allowed First Nations Australians to vote (see: Voting rights of Indigenous Australians). Also in the 1960s he advocated for the creation of the Gapuwiyak community as a part of the outstation movement. He asked that these flags each, like his, contained a Union Jack, on the corner of each as a symbol of not only the coloniser but also the coming of Christianity to Australia.

Resources about McIntosh, Ian and Burrumarra, David. (1994) The whale and the cross : conversation with David Burrumarra MBE. Historical Society of the Northern Territory, Darwin.