My story begins as a descendant of the original inhabitants of Australia; I am Aboriginal, with a mix of English and Dutch ancestry. During my infant and primary school years up to the age of 8, I lived with my extended family in a place called “Blackman’s Point”. Like most state towns in eastern New South Wales, this was also a massacre site for Aboriginal ancestors and mothers that occurred during the settlement of the seaside town of Port Macquarie in the mid-19th century. “Blackman’s Point” is called “Goolawahl”. (Pronounced like goal-a-wall.) in the birripi culture.

The many rivers that flow from the western mountains and the Great Diving Range to our coastal sea (Pacific Ocean) mostly have aboriginal “creation” stories attached to them. Just as the “Noongar” people of Western Australia/Northern Territory and the “Pitjanjarra” of South Australia have their “dream time” culture and beliefs. So do the Aboriginal lineages of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.

The Aboriginal people of Australia in New South Wales refer to themselves as “Goori”, “Boori” or “Murri” and are related in this way unlike the European version of “Koori”. The kinship we all shared in the ’60s was strong, as I remember our old rented farmhouse in “Blackmans Point” having to endure (as did we) three major floods in 1963, 1964 and 1966.

Virtually the entire town of Port Macquarie was under water at some point during those summer times when months of heavy rain caused masses of water from the mountains to flow down the Hastings (Dhoongang) River to reach the sea only to be pushed inland by the huge King tides of the Pacific Ocean.

It was during the 1964 flood (the largest on record in Port Macquarie) that our family lost Sister Patricia as we were both hospitalized with the onset of double pneumonia. Patricia was one year old, I was 3 years old. After the floods of 1966 and until 1968, our extended families of cousins, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, mother, father, grandmothers, grandfathers had to leave the old farmhouses (they were two farmhouses separated by a bridge over a tributary to the river), they had suffered much damage while the floods raged and no wooden structure could have stood as strong as they did when the bridge was washed away, the roads were swept away, the cattle, sheep, farmers’ crops and any other living creature that did not have wings. Luckily, Uncle Trevor Rumbel (he had a fishing license) had two boats to save us as the Hastings River poured through our front door at 2am in the morning. The front door was raised 6 feet with wooden stairs down to the creek. (tributary)

My sister Tanya was born in 1966 and Jo-anne was born in 1968, the Vietnam War was on TV and there was little room for all the kids (there were 13 of us) to fit in front of the only black and white TV. place. We had plenty of other swimming, fishing, and tree climbing activities to do most of the time. After leaving Port Macquarie and the extended family, Dad, Mom, Tanya, Jo-anne, and I moved further north, about 160 miles, to the town of Evans Head. Yes, another important aboriginal place, from the “Bunjalung” people. Evans Head (Goanna Headland) is a mythological “dream hour” site.

Corroboree and ceremonies were held on that promontory (bora land) to honor their Goanna spirit totem, as well as to increase fish supplies with their Bungalung tribal songs. Evans Head is today as then a fishing village with fishing trawlers and recreational boats moored at the Fishing Cooperative along the Evans Head River.

Evans Head had large clay benches (used for ceremonial body painting). After setting out in 1969 we returned up the coast to Sawtell which is 10 miles south of Coffs Harbor (pioneer cedar mill) with a large jetty built for ships to transport the rich cedar to England and Europe. Starting sixth grade was in a town called “Woolgoolga” (population currently 25,000) about 15 miles north of Coffs Harbor (population 100,000) on the mid north coast of New South Wales. Woolgoolga, Sawtell and Coffs Harbor are towns located in the country of “Gumbaynggir” or “Gumbangar”. “Woolgoolga is a variation of the Gumbaynggir word for “Weilga” or native plum. My grandfather William “Goola” (koala) Holten (1923 -2002) used to tell me that when the disputes between the tribes of the “Birripi” and the neighbor ” Dunghutti” (crow people) happened to be the Gumbaynggir who mediated the fights. The Birripi and Dunghutti people have a long association with the Gumbaynggir. I also learned that the spirit biripi goanna “Booral-men-den-di” (size of Boeing 767) caused sand to be placed on top of the “Yarrahapinni” mountain (three koalas rolling down the hill – Gumbaynggir legend) while wagging its giant tail on the sandy ground to escape the attacks of the giant “Crows” (Dhungutti) According to “Dreamtime” the giant goanna birripi spewed fire at the giant crows (Dhungutti) and that is why all the crows are black today.

During the European colonization of Port Macquarie as a penal colony in the 19th century, a major battle between the Europeans and the Birripi, Dhungutti and Gumbaynggir peoples was fought at “Goolawahl”. The story of the battle describes how the River Hastings had turned red with the blood of the fallen.

My mother and sister remain in Woolgoolga and my sister Tanya, my father and my grandmother passed away there. After the Aboriginal Land Rights Act was passed in 1983, which empowered Aboriginal people to claim crown land for members of their community in NSW, there were many important improvements in education, employment and self-determination for NSW Aborigines.

In 1993, the High Court of Australia struck down the “terra nullius” doctrine that Australia was unoccupied when Europeans settled in Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour). Meriam Village Elder Eddie Mabo claimed common law title to his Murri Island off the north Queensland coast and asserted common law rights through the Queensland federal courts for 10 years that his people had the undefeated ownership and occupancy of their island and that no government of Australia had a better title than they.

Eddie Koiki Mabo (1936-1992) died before the High Court ruled.

In 1997, the Native Title Act 1993 was practically scuttled with amendments enacted by the Liberal Government of Australia and then Prime Minister Hon John Howard MP. The so-called “Wik Plan” of 10 points

(Wik was the name of the tribe from the Northern Territory, Gulf of Carpentaria) who faced a scheme to be granted native title, would also have to agree to allow pastoral leases to co-exist with their claim to native title in the Gulf of Carpentaria Australia. In addition, the customary rights of all Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders claiming native title were subject to the 10 Point Wik Plan.

As the “Wik” people planned:

(who did not speak English and could not understand a word) voted yes for proposed amendments to the Native Title Act of 1993 to allow pastoral leases on tribal lands to co-exist with native title owners and for the rest of the Aboriginal race of Australia to prove Native Title in Federal Court for each application to claim Native Title rights.

I was informed (no names were given) that due to the supervision of the (government appointed) interpreter at the 1997 “Wik” conference, it took some time before Wik representatives lowered their hands on the call to vote. Apparently the interpreter had forgotten to tell them to stop voting. (tongue in cheek)

Since 1993 ten native title claims have been determined.

In 2000, 561 native title claims by claimants had been filed in Australia.

As of 2000, 63 native title claims had been filed for the Northern Territory.

I have worked for and been a member of the Aboriginal Land Council since 1992. I was elected to the board of the Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council in September 2009.