We live on the land of the Wurundjeri People

Welcome to the website of the Nillumbik Reconciliation Group Inc.

The NRG is a volunteer-based, non-profit incorporated group committed to furthering the process of reconciliation with Australia's Indigenous peoples – the first Australians. Based in the Shire of Nillumbik, which includes the Melbourne suburb of Eltham and surrounding areas, the Group aims to cultivate and promote the issues of reconciliation in our local region. Click on the links down the left hand side of the page to find out more.

Original website design: Mark Lowrie. NRG logo design: Elizabeth Savage Kooroonya

Last updated: 4th May, 2012

© Copyright 2000 - 2012 Nillumbik Reconciliation Group Inc. Nillumbik Reconciliation Group does not object to its articles being reprinted provided they are not edited and the source is properly acknowledged. However, please note that this website may also contain articles and/or images copyright to other organisations or individuals.

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The Past Matters
Writing for Rights. Montsalvat April 28 2012. (There had been a session the previous evening at Melbourne University.)

A steadily growing and enthusiastic audience were treated to a most interesting, and at times charming, line up of authors.

Jan Aitken, president of the Nillumbik Reconciliation Group, gave the introduction, which included a very cordial welcome to country. She told us what an invaluable experience it is to hear real Aboriginal people giving an unadulterated view of their experiences and observations, as written in their books.

Phillip John Morrissey, Academic Coordinator, Australian Indigenous Studies Program, Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne, was chairman for the two days.

He pointed out that Aboriginal leaders of the 70’s and 80’s were writers, not high profile academics in universities etc. The importance of writing to Aboriginal people is to give them a voice. He used the example of Kevin Gilbert, in Living Black, 1977, who wrote one of the most important documents about Aboriginal people in society. Aboriginality needs, above all, community and sharing. His other example is Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal) whose 1964 book of poems, We are Going, was a best seller but was not recognised as ‘real’ poetry by academics but labelled propaganda. By the 1980’s Aboriginal writing enters academia because of literary criticism. Now there have been two Aboriginal winners of the Miles Franklin Award.

Ali Cobby Eckermann made a return visit to us this year to discuss her verse novel Ruby Moonlight. She is a winner of several poetry competitions and awards and is known for her lucidity and intelligence, and her mastery of mixing Aboriginal English and English to give voice to the brutal realities of Aboriginal experience. We were horrified when she gave some illustrations of discoveries she had made about the stories of places like Mount Gambier where torture was what was meted out to local Aboriginal people a few generations ago. The book echoes Ali’s need for contact with society and nature. Such a natural communicator, she is a delight to listen to as she discusses her life dispassionately and takes us with her on her journey from Titjikala (NT) to South Australia and her success with writing. Again she brought to life her written words with her reading. In her words she is not a political but an emotional poet, but to readers her message has a lot of power.

Between sessions, a real treat was the recitation of his poems, and singing in language by Lionel Fogarty. ‘I write to get my truth out’, is a simple but profound statement by Lionel. He also accompanied Ali’s reading of verse with his didgeridoo playing. At question times he was an interested and vocal participant.

A couple of charming writers were Nicole Watson, from Sydney, and Marie Munkara, from Darwin, who discussed their work and life with Morag Fraser. They were both fresh and natural and completely in charge of their subject matter; and both seemed a little bemused by their success. Marie’s book, Every Secret Thing, inspired by things that happened in her family, is about interactions between groups. On Bathurst Island when she was 28, she met her mum who told her to learn by sitting and listening. Marie said it was meant to be a sarcastic book but the result is humorous. In fact she broke up into giggles as she read from the book, which she said she also did while writing.

On the other hand, Nicole’s reading from her book, The Boundary, was rather chilling. She had found the writing of this crime fiction, set in Brisbane, very draining and had no mentors to bounce off, except for the great crime writers she had read.

A change of pace came with two very different books about football by Titta Secombe and Bruce Hearne McKinnon. Titta, who works for Parks Victoria, wrote her book, Marngrook for the Grampians region, which had no relevant children’s books. It is inspired by her own children’s footy. Her ancestors, at Hall’s Gap played with a possum skin ball. It is a book about a parent making a toy for a child.

Bruce Hearn McKinnon’s trinity is 1, his clan (family), 2, class politics and 3, Collingwood football. He belonged to a group of industrialized workers who instigated the reconciliation of footy and remote Indigenous communities. They adopted Yuendumu, recruiting players, especially Liam Jurrah, whose story is the subject of Bruce’s book. Bruce became like Liam’s older brother and guided this incredibly talented player through the lonely journey from Yuendumu, where he lived in the Warlpiri clan in a traditional lifestyle, to the foreign environment and all the demands of a football club. Bruce states that the book is not written for initiated reconciliation supporters like ourselves, but for the wider community.

Bill Gammage gave us a very comprehensive account of his book, The Biggest Estate on Earth, which sets out to prove that Aboriginal pastoralists, all over Australia, managed the land through fire to make the useful plants and animals more abundant, and left the landscape of 1888 far more viable than it is now. Paintings by 19th century artists, Joseph Lycett, Eugene Von Guerard and Fred McCubbin illustrate the open areas that confined forest and divided up scrub that existed when the first settlers arrived. This system not only encouraged plentiful grasslands for native animals to graze but also protected from the type of enormously destructive fires that we experience these days.

The final book for the day, A Different Inequality, was written by anthropologist and emeritus professor, Diane Austin-Broos. In a very erudite, research-based, university style lecture she told us about the relationship between law and economics that is essential for self-determination. Economy needs law and vice-versa. The impact of pastoralism on the hunter-gatherer economy re-defined the Indigenous autonomy. It can only be restored by both law and economic evolution. Since the 1960’s, 37% of the continent has been returned to the Indigenous people, enabling many to move back to their traditional lands. But the evaporation of the old economics of hunting and cottage industries has resulted in poverty. Many have moved into welfare and remain reliant. The overwhelming majority of early deaths are caused by lifestyle and disease. Although Aboriginal communities are diverse, they are more or less travelling in the same direction towards unemployment and welfare. Indigenous people deserve the same political and economic rights as the rest of Australia.

The day finished with a film about the Daly River Region, “Tales from the Daly: Nauiyu Nambiyu”, and twilight drinks but it was well and truly dark by then. We had been fed gastronomically and intellectually and went home satisfied. Congratulations to Meera and all involved for a wonderful festival.

Ann Curry

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For information about the two Databases please contact the Secretary.

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THE WURUNDJERI CULTURE RESOURCE KIT

IS NOW AVAILABLE ON DISC

The Wurundjeri Culture Resource Kit has been completely updated and is now available on CD-ROM.

The kit is primarily targeted at children in the primary years, and as the title implies it is particularly relevant to the Yarra Valley and surrounding areas – Wurundjeri country.

However, other regions would find much that is relevant, and would also see ways in which they would be able to particularise it to their areas.

You can download a preview of the first ten pages here (1MB pdf file). The CD-ROM includes files to print a board game up to A2 size.

The price of the kit is $35 including postage.

Please contact the Secretary for further information.

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