Lewis O'Brien | |
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| Born | Lewis O'Brien 25 March 1930 Point Pearce, South Australia, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
Lewis Yarlupurka O'Brien AO (born 25 March 1930), usually known as Uncle Lewis O'Brien, is an Aboriginal elder of the Kaurna people.
Lewis O'Brien | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | Lewis O'Brien 25 March 1930 Point Pearce, South Australia, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
Lewis Yarlupurka O'Brien AO (born 25 March 1930), usually known as Uncle Lewis O'Brien, is an Aboriginal elder of the Kaurna people.
Yarlupurka was in 2021 adopted by Uncle Lewis as the preferred spelling of his traditional name, following clarification of the Kaurna alphabet. Previous spellings variously included Yerloburka, Yarloburka, Yarluburka and Yurlaburka.
Lewis Yarlupurka O'Brien was born at Point Pearce Mission on Yorke Peninsula in South Australia in 1930. His father was Irish, born in County Cork. [1] His great, great grandmother was Kudnarto, who relocated from the northern parts of Kaurna country, near Clare in the nineteenth century due to dispossession of land holdings. O'Brien was ill as a child and became a ward of the state at age 12. Until the age of 18, he lived in a number of foster homes and boys' homes. [2]
He studied at Point Pearce, Ethelton Primary School and Payneham Primary School. He gained his Intermediate Certificate of education in 1946 from Le Fevre Boys Technical High School at Glanville, South Australia, overcoming extreme difficulties to do so, and gained an apprenticeship as a fitter and machinist with the South Australian Railways, completing in 1952. [2]
In the 1960s, O'Brien became involved with several movements advocating advancement for Aboriginal Australians, including the first Aboriginal Community Centre and the Aboriginal Advancement League. His influence was felt on bodies such as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission; SA Jubilee committees; and various South Australian heritage, sport and recreation committees. [3]
In 1977, he began working in schools, promoting Kaurna language and culture as well as supporting Indigenous students to complete education as a liaison officer for the South Australian Education Department. [4]
In 2002, O'Brien, along with Aboriginal scholar Alitya Wallara Rigney and linguist Rob Amery, co-founded Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi (meaning "creating Kaurna language"), a group developing and promoting the recovery of the Kaurna language. [5] [6]
For over 30 years he worked in Aboriginal education, touching every sector. [3] He has also done a great deal of research and scholarly work. [3] He served as adjunct research fellow, David Unaipon College of Indigenous Education and Research at the University of South Australia, and is a Senior Elder on Campus at Flinders University. [4]
In 2007, O'Brien published his memoir And the clock struck thirteen: The life and thoughts of Kaurna Elder Uncle Lewis Yerloburka O'Brien as told to Mary-Anne Gale, published by Wakefield Press. [7]
The Kaurna people are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kaurna culture and language were almost completely destroyed within a few decades of the British colonisation of South Australia in 1836. However, extensive documentation by early missionaries and other researchers has enabled a modern revival of both language and culture. The phrase Kaurna meyunna means "Kaurna people".
Lowitja O'Donoghue, also known as Lois O'Donoghue and Lois Smart, was an Australian public administrator and Indigenous rights advocate. She was the inaugural chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) from 1990 to 1996. She is known for her work in improving the health and welfare of Indigenous Australians, and also for the part she played in the drafting of the Native Title Act 1993, which established native title in Australia.
Victoria Square, also known as Tarntanyangga, is the central square of five public squares in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia.
Nunga is a term of self-identification for Aboriginal Australians, originally used by Aboriginal people in the southern settled areas of South Australia, and now used throughout Adelaide and surrounding towns. It is used by contrast with Gunya, which refers to non-Aboriginal persons. The use of "Nunga" by non-Aboriginal people is not always regarded as appropriate.
Kaurna is a Pama-Nyungan language historically spoken by the Kaurna peoples of the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. The Kaurna peoples are made up of various tribal clan groups, each with their own parnkarra district of land and local dialect. These dialects were historically spoken in the area bounded by Crystal Brook and Clare in the north, Cape Jervis in the south, and just over the Mount Lofty Ranges. Kaurna ceased to be spoken on an everyday basis in the 19th century and the last known native speaker, Ivaritji, died in 1929. Language revival efforts began in the 1980s, with the language now frequently used for ceremonial purposes, such as dual naming and welcome to country ceremonies.
Tjilbruke is an important creation ancestor for the Kaurna people of the Adelaide plains in the Australian state of South Australia. Tjilbruke was a Kaurna man, who appeared in Kaurna Dreaming dating back about 11,000 years. The Tjilbruke Dreaming Track or Tjilbruke Dreaming Trail is a major Dreaming trail, which connects sites from within metropolitan Adelaide southwards as far as Cape Jervis, some of which are Aboriginal sacred sites of great significance.
Rymill Park / Murlawirrapurka, and numbered as Park 14, is a recreation park located in the East Park Lands of the South Australian capital of Adelaide. There is an artificial lake with rowboats for hire, a café, children's playground and rose garden, and the Adelaide Bowling Club is on the Dequetteville Terrace side. The O-Bahn passes underneath it, to emerge at the western side opposite Grenfell Street.
Adelaide city centre is the inner city locality of Greater Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is known by locals simply as "the City" or "Town" to distinguish it from Greater Adelaide and from the City of Adelaide local government area. The population was 15,115 in the 2016 census.
Wellington Square, also known as Kudnartu, is a public square in the Adelaide suburb of North Adelaide, South Australia, in the City of Adelaide. It is roughly at the centre of the largest of the three grids which comprise North Adelaide.
Point Pearce, also spelt Point Pierce in the past, is a town in the Australian state of South Australia. The town is located in the Yorke Peninsula Council local government area, 194 kilometres (121 mi) north-west of the state capital, Adelaide.
Gladys Elphick, also known as Auntie Glad, was an Australian Aboriginal woman of Kaurna and Ngadjuri descent, best known as the founding president of the Council of Aboriginal Women of South Australia, which became the Aboriginal Council of South Australia in 1973.
Tauto Sansbury was a Narungga man from the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia. He was the recipient of the NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015 NAIDOC Week celebrations. Sansbury was born and raised on an Aboriginal reserve and dedicated his life to advocacy for Indigenous Australians.
Clamor Wilhelm Schürmann was a Lutheran missionary who emigrated to Australia and did fundamental pioneering work, together with his colleague Christian Gottlieb Teichelmann, on recording some Australian languages in South Australia.
Alitya Wallara Rigney, née Richards,, also knowns as Aunty Alice, was an Australian Aboriginal scholar. She was a Kaurna elder and part of the team that revived the Kaurna language.
Ivaritji also known as Amelia Taylor and Amelia Savage, was an elder of the Kaurna tribe of Aboriginal Australians from the Adelaide Plains in South Australia. She was "almost certainly the last person of full Kaurna ancestry", and the last known speaker of the Kaurna language before its revival in the 1990s.
Robert Vincent Anderson is an Australian Aboriginal elder and former union official.
Dorothy Betsy Peters, (1930–2019) was an Australian indigenous community leader and artist. Peters was born in Melbourne in 1930, as the daughter of Vincent and Daisy Peters. She died in 2019.
Vincent Warrior Copley was an Aboriginal Australian sportsman, activist, elder, and leader.
Robert Maxwell Amery is an Australian linguist and specialist in Australian Aboriginal languages, in particular language revitalisation of endangered languages, and focused primarily on the Kaurna language of the Adelaide Plains region of South Australia. He is the author of books, articles, and a website, among other publications.
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