Aboriginal people have occupied the area for more than 40,000 years. It was an important ritual centre for the great ceremonies conducted by the Indigenous inhabitants. The
Yan-nhangu-speaking
Yolngu people are the
traditional owners of Milingimbi and its surrounding seas and islands. In 1923, the
Methodist Overseas Mission established a
mission on the island, which attracted Aboriginal people from eastern
clan groups. They included
Gupapuyŋu- and Djambarrpuyŋu-, as well as
Wangurri- and
Warramirri-speaking people.
Thomas Theodor Webb (1885–1948) The island was bombed by the Japanese during
World War II and most of its population moved to nearby
Elcho Island. After the war, the island continued to be used as a
Royal Australian Air Force base, before the missionaries returned in 1951.
Edgar Almond Wells was superintendent at the mission in the 1950s. Like Webb before him, he was interested in the Yolngu people's art, not only for the income it brought to the mission when sold, but also as means to better understand the Indigenous people's culture. The
Musée d'ethnographie de Genève in Switzerland holds a wooden carving of a
cormorant (
wurran), a clan totem collected by Wells. The mission administered the island until 1974, after which management was transferred to Milingimbi Community Incorporated. In 2008 Milingimbi, became part of the
East Arnhem Regional Council, which took over local government. ==Language==