The dialogue between practitioners of Yolŋu and Christian religion is an ongoing one. It has produced a society in which religion is as alive and central to the community as anywhere else in Australia, and more central than in most places. It is interesting that the dialogue has become, over time, less one of race than of religious belief. Yolŋu have become Christians yet simultaneously maintained much of their own religious practice. Indeed Yolŋu have themselves taken on the role of missionaries both as Christian ministers yet also as advocates for Yolŋu religion. Yolŋu religion has become part of an outgoing culture of persuasion that combines political, religious and spiritual objectives. Yolŋu continue to insert their religious values through cultural performances into Euro-Australian contexts—through participation in the Olympic opening ceremony, through the Bangara Dance Company and The National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA) Inc. and art exhibitions such as the Saltwater Paintings. ^[39] Yet Yolŋu are equally concerned internally with accommodating Christian dogma and belief within their local framework of religious action. The lack of dogmatism displayed by the Methodist Church in Northern Australia in the early days, the fact that bigotry (in the form of intolerance of Yolŋu religious practice) arrived relatively late, has created an environment in which continual adjustments can take place. It has resulted in a society in which religious pluralism is the norm, where Yolŋu religious practice articulates with different Christian orientations. Eastern Arnhem Land remains a deeply religious society in which Yolŋu and Christian religious forms are integrated within the same events, though often sequentially. Yet below the surface, both contemporary religious practices and interpretations of the missionary past are highly contested. The contested present reflects the contradictory history of Yolŋu-European engagement and the difficulties of the contemporary context of Yolŋu lives.