Cummeragunja walk-off

Last updated

Cummeragunja walk-off
Date4 February 1939 (1939-02-04)
Location Cummeragunja Station
Participants Jack Patten
Bill Onus
Eric Onus
William Cooper

The Cummeragunja walk-off in 1939 was a protest by Aboriginal Australians at the Cummeragunja Station, an Aboriginal reserve in southern New South Wales.

Contents

Background

The Cummeragunja Mission was mostly home to Yorta Yorta people who had been relocated in the late 19th century from the Maloga Mission. In January 1935, according to W.B. Payne, a Church of Christ missionary, Christian churches were indifferent and neglecting Aboriginal people at the mission, "While thousands of pounds were being raised for missions in foreign countries the aborigines in Australia were regarded as outcasts". [1] Over the years, the New South Wales government had tightened its control on the operation of the mission. By late 1938 people had become unhappy with the management of the mission, living conditions and restrictions on their movement. [2]

Protest

On 4 February 1939, when Jack Patten was arrested and removed from the mission after trying to address the local people, as many as 200 residents of the Cummeragunja Mission walked out of the mission and crossed the Murray River, leaving the state of New South Wales. This was in contravention of rules set by the New South Wales Board for the Protection of Aborigines. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Activist Bill Onus put off his potential career as a budding actor to return from Melbourne to his place of birth for the walk-off. [6]

Legacy

Many of the people who left the mission in February 1939 settled in northern Victoria in towns such as Barmah, Echuca and Shepparton. [7]

The walk-off was one of the first mass protests by Indigenous Australians, and had significant impact on events that followed later, such the 1967 referendum. [8]

The third episode of the 1981 miniseries, Women of the Sun , is a fictional story based on the walk-off.

In October 2010, the opera Pecan Summer , based on the walk-off, opened in Mooroopna, near Shepparton. Deborah Cheetham – whose uncle Jimmy Little was born at Cummeragunja Mission – wrote, composed and performed in this production by the Short Black Opera Company. [9] [10]

In 2020, Ross Morgan, a Yorta Yorta man, designed the Collingwood Football Club's Indigenous guernsey which was worn against North Melbourne in round 13 as part of the Australian Football League's Sir Doug Nicholls round tradition. According to Morgan, the walk-off is still strongly remembered by those who were involved and their descendants. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jimmy Little</span> Australian Aboriginal musician (1937–2012)

James Oswald Little, AO was an Australian Aboriginal musician, actor and teacher, who was a member of the Yorta Yorta tribe and was raised on the Cummeragunja Reserve, New South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Nicholls</span> Governor of South Australia (1976–77)

Sir Douglas Ralph Nicholls, was a prominent Aboriginal Australian from the Yorta Yorta people. He was a professional athlete, Churches of Christ pastor and church planter, ceremonial officer and a pioneering campaigner for reconciliation.

Lin Onus, born William McLintock Onus and also known as Lin Burralung McLintock Onus, was an Australian artist of Scottish-Aboriginal origins. He was the son of activist Bill Onus.

John Thomas Patten was an Aboriginal Australian civil rights activist and journalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yorta Yorta</span> Aboriginal Australian people of north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales

The Yorta Yorta, also known as Jotijota, are an Aboriginal Australian people who have traditionally inhabited the area surrounding the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cummeragunja Reserve</span> Former Australian Aboriginal reserve in New South Wales, Australia

Cummeragunja Reserve or Cummeragunja Station, alternatively spelt Coomeroogunja, Coomeragunja, Cumeroogunga and Cummerguja, was a settlement on the New South Wales side of the Murray River, on the Victorian border near Barmah. It was also referred to as Cumeroogunga Mission, although it was not run by missionaries. The people were mostly Yorta Yorta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Cooper (Aboriginal Australian)</span>

William Cooper was an Aboriginal Australian political activist and community leader; the first to lead a national movement recognised by the Australian Government.

Deborah Joy Cheetham Fraillon, is an Aboriginal Australian soprano, actor, composer and playwright.

Thomas Shadrach James, born Thomas Shadrach Peersahib, was a Methodist lay preacher, linguist and herbalist. However, it was as a teacher, first at Maloga Aboriginal Mission and later at Cummeragunja Reserve, that he is remembered in history. Through this role, he equipped and influenced generations of Aboriginal Australian activists, including Margaret Tucker, Pastor Doug Nicholls, George Patten, Jack Patten, William Cooper and Bill Onus.

Shadrach Livingstone James was a teacher, unionist and Aboriginal Australian activist.

William Townsend Onus Jnr was an Aboriginal Australian political activist, designer, and showman, also known for his boomerang-throwing skills. He was father of artist Lin Onus.

Margaret Lilardia Tucker MBE was an Aboriginal Australian activist and writer who was among the first Aboriginal authors to publish an autobiography, in 1977.

Pecan Summer is an opera written and composed by the Indigenous Australian singer Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, who also sang in every season. It was orchestrated by Jessica Wells. It is the first opera written by an Indigenous Australian and involving an Indigenous cast. It is based on the February 1939 Cummeragunja walk-off, in which Cheetham's grandparents were involved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Aborigines' League</span> Aboriginal Australian activist organisation founded by William Cooper in 1993

The Australian Aborigines' League was established in Melbourne, Australia, in 1933 by William Cooper and others, including Margaret Tucker, Eric Onus, Anna and Caleb Morgan, and Shadrach James. Cooper was secretary of the League.

Margaret Wirrpanda was a campaigner for Australian Aboriginal rights.

The NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) is the peak representative body of Aboriginal Australians in New South Wales. It has the mandate, under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW), to develop land rights among Aboriginal people in New South Wales through its network of 120 Local Aboriginal Land Councils (LALCs). Its functions include the creation of an economic base for Aboriginal communities, as well as the continued passing and enhancement of Aboriginal culture, identity and heritage through the management of traditional sites and other cultural materials within NSW. It acts as an advisor to governments and others to ensure the preservation of Aboriginal land rights.

Hyllus Maris was an Aboriginal Australian activist, poet and educator. Maris was a Yorta Yorta woman. She was a key figure in the Aboriginal rights movement of the 1970s and 1980s, a poet, an educator and an award-winning scriptwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maloga Mission</span>

Maloga Aboriginal Mission Station also known as Maloga Mission or Mologa Mission was established about 15 miles (24 km) from the township of Moama, on the banks of the Murray River in New South Wales, Australia. It was on the edge of an extensive forest reserve. Maloga Mission was a private venture established by Daniel Matthews, a Christian missionary and school teacher, and his brother William. The mission station operated intermittently in 1874, becoming permanent in 1876. The Mission closed in 1888, after dissatisfied residents moved about 5 miles (8 km) upriver to Cummeragunja Reserve, with all of the buildings being re-built there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Atkinson</span> (1894–1965) Aboriginal community leader

Ellen Campbell Atkinson was an Australian Aboriginal community leader. Born in Madowla Park, near Echuca in Victoria, Atkinson and her family were forced to move frequently, either through the necessity of finding work, or forcibly by authorities. She converted to Christianity when the Aborigines' Inland Mission (AIM) visited the Cummeragunja Reserve, where she was living, and served the mission for many years in roles such as organist and deacon.

Elizabeth Maud Hoffman, née Morgan, also known as Aunty Liz or Yarmauk, was an Australian Indigenous rights activist and public servant. She co-founded the first Indigenous Woman's Refuge in Australia, named "The Elizabeth Hoffman House" in her honour. She was one of 250 women included in the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001 and received the inaugural NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

References

  1. ↑ "Aborigines Neglected – Missioner's Complaint – Churches not Doing Enough". The Mercury . Davies Brothers Ltd. 22 January 1935. p. 7. Retrieved 4 April 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  2. 1 2 "Cummeragunja – Mission History". Mission Voices. ABC Online. Archived from the original on 27 May 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  3. ↑ "Struggle for Justice". Mission Voices. ABC Online. Archived from the original on 15 May 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  4. ↑ "New DVD tells story of Shepparton Koori Community". Victorian Department of the Attorney General. 23 April 2008. Archived from the original on 30 October 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  5. ↑ "NSW Station – Man Convicted". The Argus . 11 March 1939. Retrieved 19 November 2009– via National Library of Australia.
  6. ↑ Reich, Hannah (13 August 2021). "Documentary Ablaze reveals civil rights leader Bill Onus might have been the first Aboriginal filmmaker". ABC News. The Screen Show. Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  7. ↑ "Cummeragunja Mission – Significant Events". Mission Voices. ABC Online. Archived from the original on 1 March 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  8. ↑ Dobson, Mahalia (4 February 2019). "Yorta Yorta people return to Cummeragunja 80 years after historical 'walk-off'". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  9. ↑ Short Black Opera Company proudly presents Pecan Summer – World Premiere Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine (retrieved 10 October 2010)
  10. ↑ "Rehearsals and talent search for first Indigenous opera". AM . ABC Radio National. 18 September 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2009.; "Pecan Summer Pt 1: Empowering Voices". Message Stick . ABC Television. 15 November 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  11. ↑ "Amazing art and stories to match: Every AFL club's Indigenous Round guernsey". Fox Sports . Australia. 20 August 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.