Ngar-wu Wanyarra Aboriginal Health Conference,2015 Setting the Historic Context: ‘Looking Back Journeying Forward’Dr Wayne Atkinson- Yorta Yorta, University of Melbourne

Cultural & Demographic Profile Today the Yorta Yorta are the overarching tribal and language

group that represents a number of clan and family groups that make up the Yorta Yorta Nation. These are the Bangerang, Wollithiga, Wongatpan, Towroonban, Kailthiban, Waaringulum, Moitheriban, Pikkolatpan, Angootheriban, Ngarrimowro, Toolenyagun and Boongatpan. These are mainly local family groups who form the nature and structure of the Yorta Yorta Nation today.

Demographic changes over the last century including intermarriage and movements from broader regions have created a diverse Indigenous community in the Murray Goulburn Region, estimated to be appr0ximatly 6-7000 people - predominantly of Yorta Yorta background . This population is growing more rapidly than the Non-Aboriginal Population, and the majority pop of over 2000 is located in the Shepparton region (Aboriginal People and the Community of Greater Shepparton: Report by , Kaiela Institute and University of Melbourne, 2014; Evidence from YYNTC, 1996).

Indigenous Occupation of the Ancestral Lands

Timeline & Evidence of prior occupation

Mound Sites: Traditional Food Gathering and cooking and food storage systems

Mound Mound

Lagoon& Natural Food Storage System, Barmah Forest, F

Depopulation as a result of European Invasion

Maloga: 1874-88

Cummeragunja: 1888-Present Aboriginal Leaders 1930s

Cummera & Maloga Heritage, 1874-Present

Traditional Owners Maloga

Barriers to Education at Maloga-Cummera

Proscribed level of education allowed to be taught on reserves was to 3rd grade (equal to an 8 year old white student)

Higher level of education was denied by the oppressive policies of the Aborigines Protection Board that overlorded the administration of reserves in NSW 1880s to 1940s-see 1938 NSW: Public Service Board Inquiry.

Scholars Hut: Place where T.S.James mentored the first generation of Yorta Yorta leaders The image of the Scholars Hut, a candle burning

into the night, and the quality of education that T. S. James was imparting to his students, is a powerful metaphor.

Has had a profound effect on community aspirations to carry on from where Grandpa left off and to achieve in higher education- Individual empowerment which in turn creates community empowerment.

To understand the quality of education that was happening in the Scholars Hut we need to try and recreate the world of the first graduates and the pedagogy of Granpas teaching.

Quality of Education unsurpassed Quality of Education being taught at Maloga and

Cummera praised by the non-Indigenous students whom Grandpa taught at Maloga and Cummera, including Matthews’ eldest son John, who went on to enjoy a privileged education in Melbourne, Adelaide, London and Canada.

On returning to Cummeragunja many years later with a sense of gratitude for Granpas teaching, whom he said ‘laid the truest and finest foundation of his education’ and was a ‘teacher unsurpassed anywhere’.

In comparing the quality of education being taught at Maloga/Cummera and in mainstream schools, It was ‘equal to or above that of the average school’, which John Kerr Matthews attributes to ‘the character and ability of Mr James’.[i]

[i] Riverine Herald, 16 August 1946.

Indigenous Political Movement 1930’s

Indigenous leaders of the 1930’s led by William Cooper, Doug Nichols, Jack Patten, Perl Gibbs, challenged the Governments control and asserted rights to justice & equality before the law & to full citizenship entitlements

Day of Mourning Protest, 1938 led to The Cummera Walk-Off, 1939

From Cummera to the Flat & Dashes Paddock, Mooroopna, 1939-1957

Rumbalara Aboriginal Coop

Major service delivery organisation in Region that began in the 1970s under the Whitlam Governments Self Determination policy.

Employs over 100 people and runs diversity of programs in health, housing, family care, and justice, aimed a ‘closing the gap’.

CULTURAL CONTINUITYTHROUGH COMMUNITY, ART, MUSIC, THEATRE, DANCE, & SPORT

Cultural Heritage: A Living Heritage

Mural of Biami :Rainbow Serpent, Dharnya Centre

Cultural Continuity with Pride & Identity

Lou Bennett & Tiddas Jimmy Little, Yorta Yorta Man

Yanagai Yanagai Play, 2006Andrea James

Yorta Yorta artist Lin Onus (1948 – 1996) work has inspired a new generation of young Indigenous artists from south-eastern Australia.

Debra CheetamPecan Summer

Opera

Tony BriggsActor/Playwright

Cultural Continuity through Sport,

Health & Education

Rumbalara Football & Netball Club, SheppartonAcademy of Sport Health & Education, Shepparton, 2005(University of Melbourne)

CummeraFootyTeam,1927

Land Rights: Yorta Yorta Native Title Claim, 1994-2002

Barriers to achieving land justice under Anglo legal system & way Mabo principles were interpreted and applied by the Courts, including the oppostition to the claim by vested interest groups, local government, propagated by the media, combined to pervert the course of justice in the Yorta Yorta case. Back to ‘Base Camp Politics’ - YY Agreement & National Parks-Joint Management.

Olney’s Test for Yorta Yorta Native Title‘The Frozen in Time View of Aboriginal Culture’

Indigenous Land Management

A Holistic view of the relationship between Land and Natural Resource Management.

Campaign for National Park & Joint Management

Apology, 2008 to Closing the Gap Report, 11 Feb, 2015 Ten years after the “Bringing Them Home Report”,

the Federal Government made a formal apology to the Stolen Generations on Wednesday, 13th February 2008, committing itself to ‘Closing the Gap on Indigenous disadvantage’.

Since the delivery of the apology, the ‘Indigenous Disadvantage Report’ of Reconciliation Australia, 2009, and the Productivity Commission Report, 2010, found that across virtually all indicators there are still wide gaps between Indigenous and other Australians’ and in almost all cases ‘the gaps’ have in fact increased as mainstream economic prosperity has accelerated away from that of Aboriginal Australia’(Productivity Commission (2009) Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2009. Canberra Productivity Commission).

SEVEN YEARS down the track (2015) key question is how far we've come and whether the gap has been closed, is the same, or is getting wider? Also important for critiquing disadvantage in Health indicators – see Closing the Gap Report, 11 Feb, 2015.

Education as a Pathway to Indivudual and Community Empowerment Following the footsteps of Maloga/Cummera leaders, education became

an important tool of individual and community empowerment tracing its origins to Maloga /Cummera and beyond- still an important living legacy in Yorta Yorta community -example are graduates in Higher Education most of whom are Maloga/ Cummera descendants.

Scholars hut at Maloga headed by Granpa James has turned a full circle and continues to be a key metaphor in the teaching of Indigenous Studies and the knowledge transfer that takes place between the local and academic world which in turn contributes to the Community empowerment and the political struggle- Oncountry Learning and Community Based Education is achieving excellent quality of teaching outcomes-two way learning.

‘Power of the Voice, the Spear of the Pen’ and Collective Organisation” are the key strategies used to achieve fair and just outcomes in the Yorta Yorta Struggle for Land Justice, National Parks, Joint Management, Self Determination, Community Control, and Social and Economic autonomy.

‘Keeping it for the Future’

Old Dhungulla: Keep Her Flowin &

Keep the Dharnya River Reds Growin

Yorta Yorta Woka & Thank you for your attention