John Gorrie | |
---|---|
Born | John Anthony Gorrie 10 March 1950 Victoria, Australia |
Occupation(s) | Public servant, Indigenous advocate |
Children | Veronica Gorrie |
John Anthony Gorrie PSM (born 10 March 1950) is the first Aboriginal Australian person awarded the Public Service Medal, in 2005.
John Anthony Gorrie [1] was born on 10 March 1950 to single mother and Gunaikurnai woman Linda, [2] and was placed in the Royal Park children's home [3] in Melbourne. [2] The authorities returned him to her after she married Carl Turner and applied for custody, and he grew up with her at Lake Tyers Mission, an Aboriginal reserve. [2]
He is a Kurnai elder of the Krauatungalung clan, whose traditional lands are located in East Gippsland in Victoria. [3] [2]
He has positive memories of his childhood there, including movie nights, his friends, and swimming in the lake. [2] However, his mother remained fearful of the authorities, and would hide him whenever inspectors visited Lake Tyers. [3]
Gorrie started work as an Aboriginal liaison and advocacy officer and in the Victorian Department of Human Services [2] in 1991, and was the only Indigenous worker there when he began. [3] He continued to work at the department, completing 21 years at the end of 2011. [2]
After working for 14 years in the field of child protection, he was given the Public Service Medal "for outstanding public service in improving the relationship between the Department of Human Services and the Aboriginal community". [1] As a result of his work, new programs were created by the department, and Aboriginal people's interactions with the department improved. [4] The number of Indigenous employees had increased to 20 by 2011. [3]
As of 2023 [update] Gorrie was living in Sale, and continues to visit Lake Tyers, which he still considers as "home". His mother and father are buried in the New Cemetery there. [2]
His daughter is writer Veronica Gorrie, and his grandchild is writer, actor and activist Nayuka Gorrie. [5]
Traralgon is a town located in the east of the Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia and the most populous city in the City of Latrobe and the region. The urban population of Traralgon at the 2021 census was 26,907. It is the largest and fastest growing city in the greater Latrobe Valley area, which has a population of 77,168 at the 2021 Census and is administered by the City of Latrobe.
Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne.
Lakes Entrance is a seaside resort and fishing port in eastern Victoria, Australia. It is situated approximately 320 kilometres (200 mi) east of Melbourne, near a managed, artificial channel connecting the Gippsland Lakes to Bass Strait. At the 2016 census, Lakes Entrance had a population of 4,810.
The Kurnaikur-nye) people Aboriginal Australian nation of south-east Australia. They are the Traditional Custodians of most of present-day Gippsland and much of the southern slopes of the Victorian Alps. The Kurnai nation is composed of five major clans. Many of the Kurnai people resisted early European squatting and subsequent settlement during the nineteenth century, resulting in a number of deadly confrontations between Europeans and the Kurnai. There are about 3,000 Kurnai people alive today, predominantly living in Gippsland. The Kurnai dialects are the traditional language of the Kurnai people, although there are very few fluent speakers today.
Stratford is a town on the Avon River in Victoria, Australia, 232 kilometres (144 mi) east of Melbourne on the Princes Highway in Shire of Wellington. At the 2016 census, Stratford had a population of 2617. The town services the local regional community and travellers on the Princes Highway. Stratford's principal industries are dairying, sheep, cattle and horse breeding and vegetable crops. The town has numerous coffee shops and cafes, a cellar door for a local winery, Design Gallery, model railway shop, a pub, parks and playgrounds for car travelers to break their journey.
Captain Charles James Tyers RN FRSV was a 19th-century Anglo-Australian surveyor and explorer, and the Commissioner of Crown Lands for Portland (1842–43) and Gippsland (1844–67).
Coranderrk was an Aboriginal reserve run by the Victorian government between 1863 and 1924, located around 50 kilometres (31 mi) north-east of Melbourne. The residents were mainly of the Woiwurrung, Bunurong and Taungurung peoples, and the first inhabitants chose the site of the reserve.
Framlingham is a rural township located by the Hopkins River in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) north-east of the coastal city of Warrnambool. In the 2016 census, the township had a population of 158.
Reginald Walter Saunders, MBE was the first Aboriginal Australian to be commissioned as an officer in the Australian Army. He came from a military family, his forebears having served in the Boer War and the First World War. Enlisting as a soldier in 1940, he saw action during the Second World War in North Africa, Greece and Crete, before being commissioned as a lieutenant and serving as a platoon commander in New Guinea during 1944–1945. His younger brother Harry also joined the Army, and was killed in 1942 during the Kokoda Track campaign.
The Gunaikurnai or Gunai/Kurnai language, also spelt Gunnai, Kurnai, Ganai, Gaanay, or Kurnay KUR-nye) is an Australian Aboriginal dialect cluster of the Gunaikurnai people in Gippsland in south-east Victoria. Bidawal was either a divergent dialect or a closely related language.
The Latrobe River is a perennial river of the West Gippsland catchment, located in the West Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. The Latrobe River and its associated sub-catchment is an important source for the Gippsland Lakes, draining the south eastern slopes of the Great Dividing Range.
The Aboriginal Advancement League was founded in 1957 as the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League (VAAL), is the oldest Aboriginal rights organisation in Australia still in operation. Its precursor organisations were the Australian Aborigines League and Save the Aborigines Committee, and it was also formerly known as Aborigines Advancement League (Victoria), and just Aborigines Advancement League.
Murdering Gully, formerly known as Puuroyup to the Djargurd Wurrung people, is the site of an 1839 massacre of 35–40 people of the Tarnbeere Gundidj clan of the Djargurd Wurrung in the Camperdown district of Victoria, Australia. It is a gully on Mount Emu Creek, where a small stream adjoins from Merida Station.
An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th century to the 1960s to keep Aboriginal people separate from the white Australian population. The governments passed laws related to such reserves that gave them much power over all aspects of Aboriginal people’s lives.
The Buchan River is a perennial river of the Snowy River catchment, located in the Alpine region of the Australian state of Victoria.
Lake Tyers Mission, also known as Bung Yarnda, was an Aboriginal mission established in 1863 on the shore of Lake Tyers in Victoria's Gippsland, region as a centralised location for Aboriginal people from around Victoria.
The Krauatungalung are an Indigenous Australian people, of East Gippsland, in the state of Victoria, Australia. They are regarded as a group of the Kurnai, though Tindale states that their inclusion as one of the Gunai is artificial.
The Brabiralung are an Indigenous Australian people, one of the five clans of Gippsland, in the state of Victoria, Australia, belonging to a wider regional grouping known as the Kurnai.
Veronica Gorrie, also known as Veronica Heritage-Gorrie, is an Aboriginal Australian writer. She is a Gunai woman of the Krauatungalang clan. Her first book, Black and Blue: A memoir of racism and resilience, a memoir reflecting on her Aboriginality and the decade she spent in the police force, was released in 2021. Black and Blue won the Victorian Prize for Literature, Australia's richest literary award, in 2022.
Nayuka Gorrie, formerly Natalie Gorrie, is an Australian writer, actor, and screenwriter. They are known for writing and performing in the third and fourth seasons of Black Comedy, for exploring their Black queer identity, feminist politics, and social commentary.