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Australian Story - Season 31 - Episode 05: Morning Star - Witiyana Marika
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00:15Hello.
00:17Wittiana Marika is both a rock star
00:20and one of Australia's most respected Indigenous leaders.
00:24He's from Yakala in the Northern Territory,
00:27famous for its incredible art as well as its major role
00:31in Australia's land rights history.
00:34Wittiana was a founding member of the legendary band Yothu Yindi
00:38and living a rock and roll lifestyle.
00:41But when his community called, he stepped up.
00:55Wittiana's always been a natural performer.
00:57It's in his blood, it's in his DNA.
01:03Your eyes are drawn to him.
01:11When I first met Wittiana Marika,
01:13he was young and handsome and all the women were chasing him.
01:16And I thought, wow, how's this guy going to settle down at home
01:19and really get serious around traditional law and all that?
01:26Wittiana transformed from, you know,
01:28the dreadlocked superstar rock star
01:30into a leader of his people.
01:38He looked at himself that he's ready to do this.
01:43He can do anything.
01:45That's the kind of leadership that he carries now.
01:51He's an archbishop.
01:52He's a high court judge.
01:54He's a professor.
01:55He's a counsellor.
01:57He's like a Lord Mayor.
01:59And he also happens to be a rock star.
02:06Good evening, everyone.
02:09How are we doing?
02:11Mind you, ma'am.
02:13Wittiana means morning star.
02:15So the night that Wittiana was born,
02:18his father's brother had a dream.
02:20And the dream was this young boy coming towards Wittiana's father
02:25with a little white flower, which was a star.
02:29You think about that.
02:30A star was born that night.
02:32Wittiana and Marika.
02:34That's the star that I am.
02:38So I want to be a star.
02:40Film star, rock star, and the star of my birth.
02:45I mean, becoming a real star.
03:04Wittiana grew up in the community of Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land.
03:09It's an incredibly remote part of Australia,
03:12on the eastern edge of the Northern Territory.
03:15Yirrkala is the home of the Yungu people.
03:19There are 13 clan groups.
03:21Wittiana was born into the Ritachingu clan.
03:311961, that was the year that I was born.
03:36Here in Yirrkala.
03:40The beginning of becoming a song man.
03:45Mum 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.
04:04It'll be in your system.
04:11This is a place that I spent a lot of time when I was a boy.
04:14A paradise, away from distraction and only you and the nature and the spirit of the land.
04:26Wittiana learned the songs from Dad by sitting next to him and clapping with his clapsticks
04:32and just following the lyrics and the words.
04:37You know, when the old man say,
04:40Hang on, you're really good.
04:42You're going to be a song man.
04:44Don't be shy.
04:45Put your voice out there.
04:49We have to keep those song lines.
04:54It'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, but inland the soil was different.
05:13It was bright red.
05:15It proved to be bauxite, aluminium oxide, and the white man came to go.
05:22Overshadowing all of Wittiana's childhood was the struggle against a huge mine
05:28which was threatened to be built on the Gove Peninsula.
05:33Effectively 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
05:50was Wittiana's father.
05:53Roy Marika, MBE.
05:55Leader 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.
06:06If the people and Aborigines can make agreement with each other.
06:14He was a role model for me.
06:16He 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 Yirukal people's views were ignored.
06:56In 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 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.
07:32Broken 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, the sacred point where rituals start
08:02here.
08:10This is the place where my ancestors stood.
08:16And my next generation, where they were going to stand here tall and talk, tall 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,
08:36to 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.
09:03I'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.
09:19Wittiana'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?
09:56We want to change this world.
09:58Instead of singing in English, we can blend English and Yirukala.
10:04Ha, ha, ha, ha.
10:11What a crazy idea.
10:13Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,
10:18da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
10:18They started writing songs and singing, and we'd sit around and just listen to them sing.
10:25Reflections 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?
10:34Sharing the dreams of the red, black and gold
10:41We've done living now with the young away
10:46Ba, ba, ba, ba, living in a maze dream
10:52Wittiano was a really important part of the image of the band,
10:57so he was a very good-looking man,
10:59powerful 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
11:24that he just mixes in at the right time
11:27and brings it right up front, and 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 Yindi put out Treaty, everything suddenly exploded.
12:02They went from being a backyard band in Ukala
12:05to being a household name across Australia.
12:15Their song started to race up the charts,
12:18not just in Australia, but in other countries too.
12:21OK, this is Yothi Yindi.
12:22DC, check this out.
12:23You're going to enjoy this.
12:29Preeti was the first time that a song,
12:31essentially about young rights, Aboriginal rights,
12:34was in the mainstream.
12:38My life just changed,
12:40and I was becoming a famous Yolngo rock star.
12:47And that puts us up there,
12:50the top of the world.
12:57Rock and rolls, you know, there's alcohol, there's drugs,
13:00there'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 talent.
13:22I was really sad.
13:25While I was doing that,
13:27my father was very, very ill.
13:31And I could feel his energy,
13:35that he was calling me home.
13:38Come back, my son.
13:40Come back.
13:46Whittianna was driving his car
13:47out towards the remote community of Ramanginning,
13:50and Whittianna's young son was in the car.
13:54There was alcohol.
13:58We came into Kapuoyak,
14:02bending 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.
14:23Rolled.
14:24He struck me here.
14:27It was pretty bad.
14:29You know, we thought 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,
14:47no 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 footstep.
15:02Dad said, come home.
15:04Come back to the land, come back to the songs,
15:07come back to the culture, and that's what he did.
15:12He decided to leave the band.
15:14And he came home to work with his father,
15:17who was then, yeah, getting on in age,
15:20and he wasn't sure how long he was going to be around
15:22to 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
15:34has died at the age of 67.
15:38My father passed away in 1993.
15:42His 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.
15:56You 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.
16:24A time to reflect about his life and journey.
16:29Whittayana was called upon basically for everything around his community,
16:34welcoming ceremonies and every funeral.
16:38Welcome, welcome, welcome,
16:41people that came in today
16:44from 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
16:56when someone has been run over.
16:57Whittayana 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.
17:16Everyone's shouting at each other
17:18and there's sort of violence going on.
17:21You'll see Whittayana.
17:22You 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
17:32and slowly things subdue
17:35and Whittayana will just walk up,
17:37take them by the hand,
17:39remove the weapon,
17:41put his arm around him and walk him off.
17:44He's leading the whole show in the community.
17:48Whittayana is really a peacemaker.
17:58Being a strong man is hard.
18:01It takes time.
18:04It takes wisdom.
18:05It takes knowledge.
18:12These ceremony leaders are really,
18:14from a cultural perspective,
18:15the top of the pile in the community.
18:17They're the most important people.
18:22It'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.
18:36Whittayana's role as a ceremonial leader
18:38is well-respected amongst all the clans.
18:44His portfolio amongst the clan that he leads
18:49would be the spiritual health of the land and its people.
18:57Whittayana appears to be walking in both worlds
19:01very 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.
19:17I was making a film called High Ground,
19:20which 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
19:31of the frontier wars and the massacres
19:34and how the families stood up
19:37in the face of adversity and fought.
19:47There's an old man in the film who's the elder, the leader,
19:52and Whittayana stood up,
19:53and it was kind of like he was born to do it.
19:57Your uncle has broken the law.
20:00Nah, Rom!
20:02He wants to know what law you're talking about.
20:05What?
20:07It was my first acting role,
20:10and I haven't been to a school or whatever, you know?
20:16Nah.
20:17It's just natural.
20:19Just right there.
20:20Bang.
20:20Bang by the power and knowledge and spirituality.
20:27This is my law.
20:29It come from the soil, from Mother Earth.
20:33Yours come from across the sea.
20:35I understand balance.
20:38But in this country...
20:39My country.
20:42So high ground, in a sense, is about the resistance,
20:45and the resistance goes on to this day.
20:48Prominent Gumarch leader Gulleroy Yunupingu says he plans to lodge a native title compensation claim
20:55over Borkside mining land in Gove within months.
20:59Over 50 years after, all of the hubbub around the establishment of the mine, the bark petitions,
21:09we're back in the courts with a huge case claiming that the Yungu people were dispossessed without just terms.
21:20The case will hear arguments about whether Yungu people have a right to compensation.
21:25The 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 Yungu people, men and women, from different clans, come to the opening of that court session.
21:49And Wilyana sat there with his brothers every day during the high court case,
21:54and he'd lead them in every morning with his billboard and song.
22:04Traditional owners in the Northern Territory have 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 on 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, but it's back to the federal court now to determine
22:28that.
22:31My father, he would have been the happiest man alive, you know, when he would have been here today, for
22:40winning the case.
22:45While Wilyana 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 realised that I had a problem with my heart.
23:07Your 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, like he'd driven himself way past any medical barrier.
23:21He was running on not even fumes, and just doing his ceremonial obligations,
23:27until he collapsed, as I recall, and, 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 and 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. We want your life.
23:58Just go.
24:00They will help you, those heart surgeons, because we need you.
24:06We need you. This community needs you.
24:09And he hugged us and said, we're going. I'm going.
24:18Today, we are now standing on sacred ground.
24:29My safety fixed my heart.
24:33It's thunder hard now.
24:40I can dance and I can sing hard and run.
24:48It changed him.
24:50When he came back he was like full of energy that he said, now I'm going to step out there
24:57into the community and step out and just take care of this community.
25:10Wittiana's role is becoming increasingly important in the sense that people are growing
25:17old, people are passing away and Wittiana is stepping up.
25:25One would hope that he'll get to the point where he is taking over his father's position
25:31as the leader of the Ruta Chingle 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 Wittiana's ability to work
25:50in two worlds 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
26:04in time the royalties stop.
26:07The 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
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.
26:33There'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.
26:54So 2025, Vyothi Gindi is back.
26:57Mandeloi passed away in 2013 and so we're now working on what we're calling a multi-generational
27:03band.
27:03And I'm 64 but I'm still flying across the stage.
27:09We didn't do any shows for quite some time, but then finally reformed the band and Wittiana
27:16was a big part of doing that.
27:36Mandeloi, when he's still alive, he would always think that he wants the youth indie band
27:42to continue.
27:44That was his legacy.
27:45And I think he'd be proud of Wittiana today to be continuing that legacy.
27:56Wittiana gets up there and kind of leads the show now.
27:59He's the front man in that way because everyone knows that he's the original.
28:03T, A, T, A.
28:06T, A, T, A.
28:19We've got two, uh, grandkids.
28:23This is girl.
28:27and a boy two twins look it's absolutely amazing that
28:33with the america is still alive today with the things that he's had against him
28:40he was never meant to die or disappear he was he's meant to be here and to love you to
28:50color
28:51and its people it's a crazy wild ride from this incredible dreadlocked rock star into
29:02incredibly important cultural leader that was always in him that is what his father wanted
29:08him to be and i think his dad would be really proud fish coming out we're the oldest culture
29:19on earth today you know always was and always will be we're here we're here and we will be here
29:33forever
29:49oh
29:53yeah oh yeah
29:56you
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