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00:15Hello, Wittiana Marika is both a rock star and one of Australia's most respected Indigenous
00:23leaders. He's from Yakala in the Northern Territory, famous for its incredible art as well as its major
00:30role in Australia's land rights history. Wittiana was a founding member of the legendary band Yothu
00:38Yindi and living a rock and roll lifestyle but when his community called he stepped up.
00:55Wittiana has always been a natural performer, it's in his blood, it's in his DNA. Your eyes are drawn to
01:05him.
01:11When I first met Wittiana Marika he was young and handsome and all the women were chasing him
01:16and I thought wow how's this guy gonna settle down at home and really get serious around traditional
01:21the law and all that. Wittiana transformed from you know the dreadlocked superstar rock star into
01:31a leader of his people.
01:38He looked at himself that he's ready to do this. He can do anything. That's the kind of leadership
01:46that he carries now. He's an archbishop, he's a high court judge, he's a professor, he's a counsellor,
01:56he's like a lord mayor and he also happens to be a rock star.
02:06Good evening everyone.
02:09How are we doing?
02:13Wittiana means morning star. So the night that Wittiana was born
02:18his father's brother had a dream and the dream was this young boy coming towards Wittiana's father
02:25with a little white flower which was a star. You think about that, a star was born that night. Wittiana
02:32Marika.
02:34That's the star that I am. So I want to be a star. Film star, rock star and the star
02:43of my birth.
02:44I'm happy for becoming a real star.
03:04Wittiana grew up in the community of Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land.
03:08It's an incredibly remote part of Australia on the eastern edge of the Northern Territory.
03:16Yirrkala is the home of the Yungo people.
03:19There are 13 clan groups. Wittiana was born into the Riddichingu clan.
03:30In 1961, that was the year that I was born here in Yirrkala.
03:40The beginning of becoming a song man.
03:44Mum told us that Dad used to sing into that belly.
03:49Maybe two or three months pregnant.
03:53The special message that you are going to listen to this song.
03:59When you will be born, you'll be already prepared.
04:04They'll be in your system.
04:11This is a place that I spent a lot of time when I was a boy.
04:15A paradise.
04:17Away from distraction and only you and the nature and the spirit of the land.
04:26We didn't learn the songs from Dad by sitting next to and clapping with his clapsticks and just
04:33following the lyrics and the words.
04:37You know, when the old man say, hang on, you're really good.
04:42You're going to be a song man. Don't be shy. Put your voice out there.
04:49We have to keep those song lines. It's a literature on its own.
05:00So it has to be kept alive and maintained by song men like him.
05:07The beach at Gove was just like any other beach along the coast.
05:11But inland, the soil was different. It was bright red.
05:15It proved to be bauxite, aluminium oxide, and the white man came to go.
05:22Overshadowing all of Widiana's childhood was the struggle against a huge mine,
05:28which was threatened to be built on the Gove Peninsula.
05:34Overshadowing all of the people that were so beautiful in this pristine, gorgeous place.
05:43One of the people who became an incredibly important spokesperson
05:47for the opposition to the mine was Widiana's father.
05:53Roy Marika, MBE, leader of the Yirukala and a leader of Australia's Aboriginals.
05:58The man who was in the very centre of that hot political issue, land rights for Aboriginals.
06:04We like people to come. If the people and Aborigines can make agreement with each other.
06:14He was a role model for me. He expected that I would one day be a leader.
06:21Watching that, and I think to myself, I'm going to be like him, to stand strong and fight for my
06:31people.
06:33The people of Yirukala have protested to the federal government about the project.
06:40So the elders came together to create a bark petition to send to Canberra to tell the politicians
06:48that they wanted to have a voice in determining what was going to happen on their land.
06:53But the Yirukala people's views were ignored.
06:57In 1971, the first inhabitants fought back in a court case.
07:01The elders continued to prosecute the case that this was their land.
07:05But instead of prosecuting it through the parliament, they prosecuted it through the courts.
07:11In the end, Justice Blackburn found that the Yirukala people had no native title claim
07:18over their land in British law. And the mine went ahead.
07:28It was a terrible moment.
07:33Broken my father's heart, my grandfather, and all the clans.
07:40It was just devastating, you know?
07:51This is the first place that miners came in and destroyed the site first,
07:59the sacred point where rituals start here.
08:10This is the place where my ancestors stood.
08:16And my next generation, where they were going to stand here tall and talk,
08:24tall and proud and strong.
08:29When Wittiana was a teenager, his dad sent him down south to Melbourne to be a part of a dance
08:36troupe to basically teach his culture, his language and his dancing to school groups across Victoria.
08:45And he saw it as an opportunity to learn the ways of the Western world.
08:52He spoke 13 clan languages, but he hardly even spoke English at that point.
09:00So I thought to myself, I'm going to learn English.
09:03I'm going to talk like a white man for the good of myself and for the people of Yirukala.
09:11To learn and stand and fight back.
09:16The special award.
09:19Wittiana's uncle was Mandawai Yunupingu, a school teacher in Yirukala who would rise to become principal.
09:28He was also an up and coming musician who wanted to go places.
09:34Mandawai pretty early on clued onto the fact that Wittiana was very talented
09:38and they might be able to grow something together.
09:44Yeah, Mandawai saw me dancing and he chose me.
09:49He's the one who chose me.
09:50And he told me, I'm going to form a band.
09:55Oh yeah, you know, we want to change this world.
09:58Instead of singing in English, we can blend English and Yirukala.
10:11What a crazy idea.
10:18They started writing songs and singing and we'd sit around and just listen to them sing.
10:28They thought they were a little small band.
10:31Until somebody heard it and said, why don't we record this?
10:35Sharing the dreams of the red, black and gold.
10:41We've done living now in the young hallway.
10:47Ba, ba, ba, ba, living in the mainstream.
10:52Wittiana was a really important part of the image of the band.
10:57So he's a very good looking man, powerful stage presence, powerful voice.
11:09I was the guy who made all the early Yothi Uni videos.
11:16We used to call him the Black Elvis.
11:18He's got all of the tribal moves, but he's got this swagger.
11:22He's got this Elvis thing going on that he just mixes in at the right time
11:27and brings it right up front.
11:29And the audience just love it.
11:41And they started writing a little song, Treaty.
11:46Everyone loved that song when it came out.
11:49You know, everyone played the same song over and over and over.
11:57When Yothi Uni put out Treaty, everything suddenly exploded.
12:02They went from being a backyard band in Yukala to being a household name across Australia.
12:15The song started to race up the charts, not just in Australia, but in other countries too.
12:21OK, this is Yothi Yindi. DC, check this out. You're going to enjoy this.
12:29Preeti was the first time that a song essentially about young rights,
12:33Aboriginal rights, was in the mainstream.
12:38My life just changed and I was becoming a famous Yolngo rock star.
12:47And that puts us up there, the top of the world.
12:57Rock and rolls, you know, there's alcohol, there's drugs, there's just day in, day out,
13:02you travel, you perform. And it took its toll. It took its toll on Whittian, it took its toll on
13:07Munda.
13:10I was drinking too much sometimes. It was bad to my body. It was just ruining my talent.
13:22I was feeling sad. While I was doing that, my father was very, very ill.
13:31And I could feel his energy, that he was calling me home.
13:38Come back, my son. Come back.
13:41All right, let's go.
13:43I was feeling sad.
13:45What happened?
13:46Wittiana was driving his car out towards the remote community of Ramanginning,
13:50and Wittiana's young son was in the car.
13:54there was alcohol we came into kapoya bending sharp corner full speed
14:04we was going around the corner and then bang
14:10we just hit the side of the road and then flipped the car flipped one two three four
14:21five rules struck me here it was pretty bad you know we thought we we were going to lose them
14:32both
14:36and it was the biggest wake-up call of his life because he realized he wasn't going to
14:41live if he kept it up and he was hurting other people and that's when he said no more drinking
14:49i'm going to be an elder
14:54it was time to come back home and be a leader to step into my father's footstep
15:02dad said come home come back to the land come back to the songs come back to the culture and
15:10that's
15:10what he did he decided to leave the band he came home to work with his father who was then
15:18yeah getting on in age and he wasn't sure how long he was going to be around to get from
15:23him as much
15:24as possible learn from him as much as possible before his father died
15:31one of the founding fathers of the land rights movement has died at the age of 67.
15:36my father passed away in 1993. his father's voice still rings in his ears that he wants him to
15:49carry on his role and to be a person that brings people together yeah brings reconciliation um brings
16:01a person's harmony a real leader
16:04a real leader
16:15today is a happy sad day as a memorial for my twin brother a time to reflect about his life
16:27and journey
16:30widiyana was called upon basically for everything around his community welcoming ceremonies
16:36and every funeral welcome welcome welcome welcome people that came in today from my brother's memorial
16:49he's the person who's comforting the woman who's lost her child
16:54he's there in the middle of the night when someone has been run over
16:57widiyana will appear with his clapsticks he's like a spiritual ambulance if you like
17:12every now and then tensions within the community erupt
17:16everyone's shouting at each other and there's sort of violence going on
17:20you'll see widiyana you just start with the clapsticks
17:26and he walks straight through the middle of these scenes as he's got a force field around him
17:33and slowly things subdue and widiyana will just walk up take them by the hand remove the weapon
17:41put his arm around him and walk him off he's leading the whole show in the community
17:48willyana is really a piece maker
17:58being a strong man is hard
18:01it takes time it takes wisdom it takes the knowledge
18:12these ceremony leaders are really from a cultural perspective the top of the pile in the
18:16community they're the most important people
18:22it's not a job that pays a regular wage of course but without that your son won't get initiated
18:29without that you can't bury a family member that's deceased
18:36widiyana's role as a ceremonial leader is well respected amongst all the clans
18:44his portfolio amongst the clan that he leads would be the spiritual health of the land and its people
18:57widiyana appears to be walking in both worlds very effectively these days
19:03so he's managing to maintain his important ceremonial role
19:08whilst going off and performing in a band whilst going off and and being a star in a film
19:17i was making a film called high ground which he was helping me produce
19:21and i thought he could play an important part in that film
19:27it's a story that tracks a period in our history of the frontier wars and the massacres
19:34and how the the the families stood up in the face of adversity and fought
19:47there's an old man in the film who's the the elder the leader and widiyana stood up
19:54and it was kind of like he was born to do it your uncle has broken the law narum
20:02he wants to know what law you're talking about what it was my first acting role and i haven't been
20:12to
20:13a school or whatever you know nah it's just nettle just right there bang by the power and knowledge and
20:24that's what we're talking about we're talking about we're talking about we're talking about
20:28this is my law it come from the soil from mother earth you come from across the sea
20:35i understand balance but in this country my country so so high ground in a sense is about
20:44the resistance and the resistance goes on to this day prominent gulmarch leader galeroy unipingu says
20:52he plans to lodge a native title compensation claim over borkside mining land in gove within months
21:00over 50 years after all of the hubbub around the establishment of the mine the bark petitions
21:08we're back in the courts with a huge case claiming that the yawngul people were dispossessed without
21:17just terms the case will hear arguments about whether yawngul people have a right to compensation
21:26the court claim wound through the courts for some years and then it finally made its way to the highest
21:31court in the land
21:34and the opening of that high court session is incredible
21:40a whole group of yawngul people men and women from different clans come to the opening of that
21:48court session and wiliana sat there with his brothers every day during the high court case
21:54and he'd leave them in every morning with his billboard and song
22:00and he'd leave them in every morning with his billboard and he'd leave them in every morning
22:04traditional owners in the northern territory have had a significant win
22:08in the high court in a landmark case over native title rights
22:14the high court decided that the land hadn't been acquired on just terms
22:19and compensation was owed it could be a huge amount of money
22:23the original claim is for over half a billion dollars but it's back to the federal court now to determine
22:28that
22:31my father he would have been happiest man alive yeah what he would have been here today for winning the
22:41case
22:45while wittiana was trying to navigate this incredibly difficult court process
22:51at the same time he was struggling with his health
22:57i was in pain and i had a blood test
23:02i realized that that i had a problem with my heart your your valve is not pumping properly it was
23:11serious
23:11it was serious i could die anytime you know
23:16he was almost skeletal like he'd driven himself way past any medical barrier he was running on not even
23:23fumes and just doing his ceremonial obligations until he collapsed as i recall and um yeah it wasn't looking
23:32good and then one day he came to me and will and said oh they want me to go to
23:39adelaide and have this
23:41really big open heart surgery and he said i don't want to
23:49i was afraid i was dying everyone told me that you must go you must go we want your life
23:58just go
24:00they will help you those heart surgeons because we need you we need you this community needs you
24:09and he hugged us and said we're going i'm going
24:17today we are now standing on sacred ground
24:29my circuit fixed my heart it's thunder hard now
24:40i can dance and i can sing out and run
24:48it changed him when he came back he was like full of energy
24:54that he said now i'm going to step out there into the community and step out and
24:59and just take care of this community good morning everyone my families my board
25:10widiyana's role is becoming increasingly important in the sense that people are growing old people
25:18passing away and widiyana is stepping up only umara and bilma power one would hope that he'll get to
25:27the point where he is taking over his father's position as the leader of the rutichingale clan
25:40so over the next few years there's some fairly complex issues we need to get through
25:44he's got a massive important role to play and i think because of widiyana's ability to work in two
25:50worlds he's actually going to be a major part of how we do move forward
25:57rio tinto have said to us that they're going to close the mine in 2029 but at that point in
26:04time
26:05the royalties stop the town will lose its main current employer
26:11when the compensation's finally paid out there could be rivalries there could be some contention
26:17about where that money is going to go and if it's being distributed to the right people in the right
26:23clan
26:23groups i would like to bring the class together i want to bring them back as being one people and
26:33being unity there's a better way to live in harmony instead of fighting fighting fighting
26:41because i wanted to be a leader and a good leader you know
26:53so 2025 you're at the indies back mandalwood passed away in 2013 and so we're now working on what we're
27:02calling a multi-generational band and i'm 64 but i'm still and flying across the stage we didn't do
27:10any shows for quite some time uh they then finally um reformed the band and uh and widiyana was a
27:17big
27:17part of of doing that
27:35mind away when he's still alive he would always think that he wants the youth indie band to continue
27:44that was his legacy and i think he'd be proud of widiyana today to be continuing that legacy
27:56widiyana gets up there and kind of leads the show now he's the front man in that way because
28:01everyone knows that he's the original
28:03he's got two uh grandkids this is girl
28:26and a boy two twins
28:31look it's absolutely amazing that widiyana marika is still alive today with the things that he's had
28:36against him
28:40he was never meant to
28:44die or disappear he was he's meant to be here and to love you to color and his people
28:54it's a crazy wild ride from this incredible dreadlocked rock star into incredibly important
29:03cultural leader that was always in him that is what his father wanted him to be
29:10and i think his dad would be really proud fish coming out we're the oldest culture on earth today
29:25you know always was and always will be we're here we're here and we will be here forever
29:39oh
29:41oh
29:43oh yeah
29:44oh baby
29:48oh
29:49oh
29:53yeah
29:54oh yeah
29:56oh
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