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Australian.Story.S31E05
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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
00:30major role in Australia's land rights history. Wittiana was a founding member of the legendary
00:37band Yothu Yindi 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
01:04are drawn to him.
01:05Free, yeah. Free now. Free, yeah.
01:11When I first met with Yothu Marika, he was young and handsome and all the women were chasing
01:15him. And I thought, wow, how's this guy going to settle down at home and really get serious
01:21around traditional law and all that.
01:26Wittiana transformed from, you know, the dreadlocked superstar rock star into a leader of his people.
01:39He 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.
01:51He's an archbishop. He's a high court judge. He's a professor. He's a counsellor. He's like
01:58a Lord Mayor. And he also happens to be a rock star.
02:06Good evening, everyone. How we doing?
02:13Wittiana means morning star. So the night that Wittiana was born, his father's brother had
02:20a dream. And the dream was this young boy coming towards Wittiana's father with a little white
02:26flower, which was a star. You think about that. A star was born that night. Wittiana Marika.
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.
02:44Just happy for becoming a real star.
03:04Wittiana grew up in the community of Yekala in north-east Arnhem Land. It's an incredibly remote part of Australia,
03:12on the eastern edge of the Northern Territory.
03:16Yekala is the home of the Yungo people. There are 13 clan groups.
03:21Wittiana was born into the Riddichingu clan.
03:311961, that was the year that I was born here in Yekala.
03:39The beginning of becoming a song man. Mum told us that Dad used to sing into that belly.
03:50Maybe two or three months pregnant. The special message that you are going to listen to this song.
03:58When you will be born, you will be already prepared. It will be in your system.
04:11This is the place that I spent a lot of time in when I was a boy. A paradise.
04:17Away from destruction 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 him and clapping with his clapsticks and just following
04:34the lyrics and the words.
04:37You know, when the old man say, hang on, you're really good. You're going to be a song man. Don't
04:45be 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.
05:08The beach at Gove was just like any other beach along the coast, but inland the soil was different. It
05:14was bright red.
05:15It proved to be bauxite, aluminium oxide, and the white man came to Gove.
05:22Overshadowing all of Wittiana's childhood was the struggle against a huge mine which was threatened to be built on the
05:30Gove Peninsula.
05:34Effectively destroying the lifestyle that was so beautiful in this pristine, gorgeous place.
05:43One of the people who became an incredibly important spokesperson for the opposition to the mine was Wittiana's father.
05:53Roy Marika, MBE.
05:55Leader of the Yirukala and a leader of Australia's Aboriginals.
05:59The 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 Aboriginals 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, I think to myself, I'm going to be like him to stand strong and fight for my people.
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 that they
06:49wanted to have a voice in determining what was going to happen on their land.
06:54But the Yirukal people's views were ignored.
06:57In 1971, the first inhabitants fought back in a court case.
07:00The 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 Yirukal people had no native title claim over their land in British
07:19law.
07:20And the mine went ahead.
07:28It was a terrible moment and broken my father's heart, my grandfather and all the clan.
07:40And it was just devastating, you know.
07:52This is the first place that miners came in and destroyed the site first.
07:58This is the sacred point where rituals start here.
08:11This is the place where my ancestors stood.
08:16And my next generation were going to stand here tall and talk, tall and proud and strong.
08:29This is the place where my ancestors were.
08:30When 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.
08:59So I thought to myself, I'm going to learn English.
09:04I'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.
09:19Wittiana'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 and they might be able to grow
09:40something 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.
09:54Oh yeah?
09:56You 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.
10:24Reflections in the water I see.
10:28They thought they were a little small band until somebody heard it and said, why don't we record this?
10:52It's a very good looking man, powerful stage presence, powerful voice.
11:03We live together.
11:09I was the guy who made all the early Yirukala videos.
11:17We used to call him the Black Elvis.
11:18He's got all of the tribal moves, but he's got this swagger, he's got this Elvis thing going on that
11:25he just mixes in at the right time and 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.
11:50Everyone played the same song over and over and over.
11:57When Yothi Yindi put out Treaty, everything suddenly exploded.
12:02They went from being a backyard band in Yirukala to being a household name across Australia.
12:11Yothi Yindi.
12:13Yothi Yindi.
12:15Their song started to race up the charts, not just in Australia, but in other countries too.
12:21Okay, this is Yothi Yindi.
12:23DC, check this out.
12:24You're going to enjoy this.
12:29Preeti was the first time that a song, essentially about young rights, Aboriginal 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.
12:58Rock and rolls, you know, there's alcohol, there's drugs, there's just day in, day out, you travel, you perform.
13:04And it took its toll.
13:05It took its toll on Whittian, it took its toll on Munda.
13:10I was drinking too much sometimes.
13:13It was bad to my body.
13:16It was just ruining my, um, uh, talent.
13:22I was really sad.
13:25While I was doing that, my father was, um, very, very ill.
13:32And I could, I could feel his energy that he was calling me home.
13:38Come back, my son. Come back.
13:46Wittianna was driving his car out towards the remote community of Rameginning.
13:51And Wittianna's young son was in the car.
13:55There was alcohol.
13:59We came into Kapo Yap, bending sharp corner, full speed.
14:06We was going around the corner and then bang.
14:11We just hit the side of the road and then flipped.
14:16The car flipped.
14:17One, two, three, four, five rolls.
14:24He struck me here.
14:27It was pretty bad.
14:29You know, we thought we'd, we were going to lose them both.
14:36And it was the biggest wake up call of his life.
14:39Because he realised he wasn't going to live if he kept it up.
14:43And he was hurting other people.
14:45And 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.
14:58To step into my father's footsteps.
15:02Dad said, come home, come back to the land, come back to the songs, come back to the culture.
15:09And that's what he did.
15:13He decided to leave the band.
15:15He came home to work with his father, who was then, yeah, getting on in age.
15:20And he wasn't sure how long he was going to be around.
15:23To get from him as much as possible.
15:25Learn from him as much as possible.
15:27Before his father died.
15:31One of the founding fathers of the land rights movement has died at the age of 67.
15:37My father passed away in 1993.
15:43His father's voice still rings in his ears.
15:47That he wants him to carry on his role.
15:51And to be a person that brings people together.
15:55You know, brings reconciliation.
16:00Brings harmony.
16:03A real leader.
16:15Today is a happy, sad day.
16:20It's a memorial for my twin brother.
16:23A time to reflect about his life and journey.
16:30Widiyana was called upon basically for everything around his community.
16:34Welcoming ceremonies.
16:36And every funeral.
16:38Welcome, welcome, welcome.
16:41People that came in today.
16:45From 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.
16:58Widiyana will appear with his clapsticks.
17:00He's like a spiritual ambulance, if you like.
17:12Every now and then, tensions within the community erupt.
17:17Everyone's shouting at each other and there's sort of violence going on.
17:20You'll see Widiyana.
17:22He'll just start with the clapsticks.
17:26And he walks straight through the middle of these scenes.
17:30As he's got a force field around him.
17:33And slowly things subdue.
17:35Widiyana will just walk up.
17:37Take them by the hand.
17:39Remove the weapon.
17:40Put his arm around him.
17:43And walk him off.
17:44He's leading the whole show.
17:46In the community.
17:48Widiyana is really a peacemaker.
17:58Being a strong man is hard.
18:02It takes time.
18:04It takes wisdom.
18:06It takes knowledge.
18:12These ceremony leaders are really, from a cultural perspective,
18:15the top of the pile in the community.
18:17They're the most important people.
18:23It's not a job that pays a regular wage, of course.
18:26But 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.
18:58Widiyana 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,
19:11whilst going off and being a star in a film.
19:15Action!
19:17I was making a film called High Ground, which he was helping me produce,
19:22and I thought he could play an important part in that film.
19:28It's a story that tracks a period in our history of the frontier wars and the massacres,
19:34and how the families stood up in the face of adversity and fought.
19:47There's an old man in the film who's the elder, the leader, and Widiyana stood up,
19:54and it was kind of like he was born to do it.
19:57Your uncle has broken the law.
20:02He wants to know what law you're talking about.
20:05What?
20:07It was my first acting role,
20:11and I haven't been to a school or whatever, you know?
20:16Nah. It's just nettle.
20:19Just right there. Bang.
20:21By the power and knowledge and spirituality.
20:28This is my law.
20:29It come from the soil.
20:32From Mother Earth.
20:33Yours come from across the sea.
20:35I understand balance.
20:38But in this country...
20:39My country.
20:41So High Ground, in a sense, is about the resistance.
20:45And the resistance goes on to this day.
20:49Prominent Gumarch leader, Galaroy Yunupingu,
20:52says he plans to lodge a native title compensation claim
20:55over Borkside mining land in Gove within months.
20:59Over 50 years after,
21:03all of the hubbub around the establishment of the mine,
21:07the bark petitions,
21:09we're back in the courts with a huge case
21:12claiming that the Yawngal people were dispossessed
21:17without just terms.
21:20The case will hear arguments
21:22about whether Yawngal people have a right to compensation.
21:25The court claim wound through the courts for some years
21:29and then it finally made its way to the highest court in the land.
21:34And the opening of that High Court session is incredible.
21:40A whole group of Yawngal people, men and women,
21:44from different clans,
21:46come to the opening of that court session.
21:50And Wilyana sat there with his brothers every day
21:52during the High Court case
21:54and he'd lead them in every morning with his Beldwa and song.
22:04Traditional owners in the Northern Territory
22:06have had a significant win in the High Court
22:09in a landmark case over native title rights.
22:14The High Court decided that the land hadn't been acquired
22:17on just terms and compensation was owed.
22:21It could be a huge amount of money.
22:23The original claim is for over half a billion dollars,
22:26but it's back to the Federal Court now to determine that.
22:31My father, he would have been the happiest man alive,
22:36you know, when he would have been here today
22:40for winning the case.
22:45While Wilyana was trying to navigate
22:47this incredibly difficult court process,
22:51at the same time he was struggling with his health.
22:57I was in pain and I had blood tests.
23:02I realised that I had a problem with my heart.
23:07Your, your bowel is not pumping properly.
23:10It was serious, it was serious.
23:12I could die any time, you know.
23:16He was almost skeletal,
23:18like he'd driven himself way past any medical barrier.
23:21He was running on, not even fumes,
23:24and just doing his ceremonial obligations
23:27until he collapsed, as I recall.
23:30And, um, yeah, it wasn't looking good.
23:32And then one day he came to me and Wilyana and said,
23:37oh, they want me to go to Adelaide
23:40and have this really big open-heart surgery.
23:44And he said, I don't want to.
23:49I was afraid, I was dying.
23:53Everyone told me that, you must go, you must go,
23:57we want your life.
23:58Just go.
24:01They will help you, those heart surgeons,
24:03because we need you.
24:06We need you, this community needs you.
24:10And he hugged us and said, we're going.
24:15I'm going.
24:18Today, we are now standing on sacred ground.
24:29My circuit affects my heart.
24:33It's thunder hard now.
24:39I can dance and I can sing hard and run.
24:48It changed him.
24:50When he came back, he was, like, full of energy.
24:54That he said, ma, now I'm going to step out there into the community
24:59and step out and just take care of this community.
25:04Good morning, everyone.
25:06My families.
25:08My board.
25:10Wittiana's role is becoming increasingly important
25:14in the sense that people are growing old,
25:18people are passing away,
25:19and Wittiana is stepping up.
25:22Only Umara and Bilma.
25:24Power.
25:25One would hope that he'll get to the point
25:28where he is taking over his father's position
25:31as the leader of the Reddachingle clan.
25:40So, over the next few years, there's some fairly complex issues
25:43we need to get through.
25:45He's got a massive, important role to play.
25:47And I think because of Wittiana's ability to work in two worlds,
25:51he'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,
26:02but at that point in time, the royalties stop.
26:07The town will lose its main current employer.
26:11When the compensation's finally paid out,
26:13there could be rivalries,
26:15there could be some contention about where that money is going to go
26:19and if it's being distributed to the right people
26:23in the right clan groups.
26:26I would like to bring the clans together.
26:29I want to bring them back as being one people and being unity.
26:34There's a better way to live in harmony.
26:38Instead of fighting, fighting, fighting.
26:41Because I wanted to be a leader and a good leader.
26:45You know?
26:47It's perfect.
26:50It's perfect.
26:53So, 2025, Jyoti Indi's back.
26:57Mandel Roy passed away in 2013.
26:59And so, we're now working on
27:01what we're calling a multi-generational band.
27:03And I'm 64, but I'm still flying across the stage.
27:09We didn't do any shows for quite some time.
27:12They then finally reformed the band,
27:15and Whittayana was a big part of doing that.
27:35Mind away, when he's still alive,
27:38he would always think that he wants the youth indie band to continue.
27:44That was his legacy.
27:45And I think he'd be proud of Whittayana today
27:48to be continuing that legacy.
27:56Whittayana gets up there and kind of leads the show now.
27:59He's the front man in that way
28:01because everyone knows that he's the original.
28:20About two grandkids.
28:23There's this girl and a boy.
28:29Two twins.
28:31Look, it's absolutely amazing that Whittayana Marika is still alive today
28:35with the things that he's had against him.
28:40He was never meant to die or disappear.
28:47He was meant to be here
28:49and to love Yirukala and his people.
28:54It's a crazy wild ride from this incredible dreadlocked rock star
29:00into incredibly important cultural leader.
29:04That was always in him.
29:06That is what his father wanted him to be.
29:10And I think his dad would be really proud.
29:14Fish.
29:16Coming out.
29:18We're the oldest culture on earth today.
29:24You know, always was and always will be.
29:28We are here.
29:30We are here.
29:31And we will be here forever.
29:35And we will be here forever.
30:01We will be here forever.
30:09We are here.
30:10We'll see you next time.
30:11Thanks for reading about Whittayana Marikaast.
30:11I've already heard by the local internet Turkey Michip towser
30:11No, we'll be there.
30:11We'll come up with you next time
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