Yorta Yorta AboriginesEchuca Moama
The Yorta Yorta people (also known as joti-jota or Yota Yota) are the Indigenous Australians who traditionally lived around the the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day northeast Victoria. Yorta Yorta Family Groups include the Bangerang, Kailtheban, Wollithiga, Moira, Ulupna, Kwat Kwat, Yalaba Yalaba and Nguaria-iiliam-wurrung clans. The language is referred to generally as the Yorta Yorta language. Famous Yorta Yorta People Burnum Burnum  Burnum Burnum (10 January 1936 – 18 August 1997) was an Australian Aboriginal activist, actor, author and dreamer. He was born a Woiworrung and Yorta Yorta man at Wallaga Lake in southern New South Wales. He was christened Harry Penrith but took the name of his great grandfather, which means Great Warrior.
As a child, he spent many of his early years in children's homes. While attending the University of Tasmania in the late 1960s, he led a movement to reclaim the remains of Truganini from the Tasmanian Museum for reburial. It could be said that he may be best remembered for planting the Aboriginal flag on the white cliffs of Dover on the Australian Bicentenary Day of 26th January, 1988. This was his tongue-in-cheek way of claiming England, as Arthur Phillip had done to Burnum Burnum's homeland in 1788 when arriving with the First Fleet. Prime Minister John Howard described Burnum Burnum as "a very gracious man and very strongly committed to the welfare of Aboriginal Australians". Burnum Burnum lived in Woronora in his later life and was active in the local community. He died from heart disease on 18 August 1997. A portrait of Burnum Burnum now hangs in Sutherland Library. In 2005 Jnnaalli Reserve was renamed Burnum Burnum Reserve in his honour. Pastor Sir Douglas Ralph "Doug" Nicholls, KCVO, OBE Pastor Sir Douglas Ralph "Doug" Nicholls, KCVO, OBE, (9 December 1906 - June 6, 1988) was an Australian Aborigine from the Yorta Yorta people of the Murray river region of New South Wales and Victoria. He was a professional athlete; a pastor and church planter with the Churches of Christ in Australia Christian movement; and a pioneering campaigner for reconciliation.
He was Governor of South Australia from 1 December 1976 to 30 April 1977, when he resigned due to poor health. Sir Douglas Nicholls was born on 1906 on the Cummeragunja mission in New South Wales. At Cummeragunja mission, schooling was provided to Grade 3 standard and strict religious principles were emphasised. When he was eight, he saw his 16-year-old sister Hilda forcibly taken from his family by the police and taken to the Cootamundra Training Home for Girls. At 13 he worked with his uncle as a tar boy and general hand on sheep stations, and he lived with the shearers. He worked hard and had a cheerful disposition. This annoyed one of the shearers so much that he challenged Doug to a fight, with the loser to hand over one week's pay (30 shillings - $3). After six rounds the shearer who challenged him conceded defeat. He played Australian rules football. He was recruited by the Carlton Football Club in the VFL but did not play because of the racist attitude of the other players. From there he played for the struggling Northcote Football Club (now Richmond Central Amateur Football Club) for five years and was a member of their 1929 premiership team. In 1932 Doug joined Fitzroy Football Club where he was the first Aboriginal player to be selected to play for the Victorian Interstate Team in 1935. Knee injuries forced him to retire in 1939, and he was back at Northcote as a non-playing coach in 1940 . Playing football provided employment during the winter. To earn a living during the rest of the year, he boxed with Jimmy Sharman's Boxing Troupe, a travelling sideshow in which Sharman offered his fighters for challenge against all comers. He also made money in running races and in 1928 won the Waracknabeal Gift. Following this, the race organisers paid him an appearance fee, board and expenses to enter races. He was the inaugural chairman of the National Aboriginal Sports Foundation. He was a minister and social worker with Aboriginal people. Following his mother's death he took a renewed interest in Christianity and was baptised at Northocte Church of Christ (now Northern Community Church of Christ) in 1935 he was conducting church and hymn services as a lay preacher at the Gore St. Mission Centre in Fitzroy. In 1941 he received his call-up notice and he joined the 29th Battalion but in 1942, at the request of the Fitzroy police, he was released from his unit to work as a social worker in the Fitzroy Aboriginal community. He cared for those trapped in alcohol abuse, gambling and other social problems. He helped those who were in trouble with the police. Indigenous people gathered to him and eventually the group was so large that he became the pastor of the first Aboriginal Church of Christ in Australia. In recognition of the ministry he was already expressing he was ordained as a minister of the Gospel. In 1957 he became a field officer for the Aborigines Advancement League. He edited their magazine, Smoke Signals, and helped draw Aboriginal issues to the attention of Government officials and the general public. He pleaded for dignity for Aboriginal people as human beings. Support for the AAL grew rapidily. He helped set up hostels for Aboriginal children, holiday homes for Aboriginal people at Queenscliff and was a founding member and Victorian Secretary of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI). In 1968 he became a member of the new Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs in Victoria. Click here for DSE report on Yorta Yorta Co-operative Management Agreement |
