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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.
10:18They 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, until somebody heard it and said,
10:33I was like, why don't we record this?
10:35Sharing the dreams of the red, black and gold
10:40We've done living now in the young old way
10:46Ba-ba-ba-ba, living in a maze dream
10:52Widiyana was a really important part of the image of the band,
10:57so he's a very good-looking man, powerful stage presence,
11:02powerful voice
11:09I was the guy who made all the early Yothy Indy videos
11:16We used to call him the Black Elvis, he's got all of the tribal moves
11:20but he's got this swagger, he's got this Elvis thing going on
11:24that he just mixes in at the right time and brings it right up front
11:29and the audience just love it
11:38Well I heard it on the radio
11:41And they started writing a little song, Treaty
11:46Everyone loved that song when it came out
11:48You know, everyone played the same song over and over and over
11:57When Yothy Indy put out Treaty, everything suddenly exploded
12:01They went from being a backyard band in Ukala 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 Yothu Yindi DC, check this out, you're going to enjoy this
12:29Preeti was the first time that a song essentially about Yolngo 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
12:52Rock and Rolls, you know, there's alcohol, there's drugs, there's just day in, day out
13:02You travel, you perform
13:03And it took its toll
13:05And it took its toll
13:06It took its toll on Whittian
13:06It took its toll on Munda
13:10I was drinking too much sometimes
13:12It was bad to my body
13:16It was just ruining my talent
13:22I was really sad
13:25While 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
13:46Whittianna was driving his car out towards the remote community of Ramanginning
13:50And Whittianna's young son was in the car
13:55There was alcohol
13:58We came into Kapoayak
14:01Bending sharp corner, full speed
14:06We was going around the corner and then bang
14:11We just hit the side of the road
14:14And then flipped
14:16The car flipped
14:17One
14:18Two
14:19Three
14:20Four
14:21Five
14:23Rolls
14:24He struck me here
14:27It was pretty bad
14:29You know, we thought we were going to lose them both
14:32And 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
14:48I'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
15:09And that's what he did
15:12He decided to leave the band
15:15He came home to work with his father who was then, yeah, getting on in age
15:19And 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 has died at the age of 67
15:37My 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
15:54You know, brings reconciliation
15:59Um, brings 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
16:53He's there in the middle of the night when someone has been run over
16:57Widiyana 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 and there's sort of violence going on
17:20You see Widiyana, you 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 Widiyana will just walk up
17:37Take them by the hand
17:39Remove the weapon
17:41Put his arm around him and walk him off
17:43He's leading the whole show in the community
17:48Widiyana is really a peacemaker
17:58Being a strong man is hard
18:01It takes time
18:03It takes wisdom
18:05It takes knowledge
18:12These ceremony leaders are really, from a cultural perspective
18:15Of the 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
18:25But 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
19:11Whilst going off and being a star in a film
19:15Action!
19:17I was making a film called High Ground
19:19Which 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 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
19:51And Widiyana stood up
19:53And it was kind of like he was born to do it
19:57Your uncle has broken the law
20:00Naram!
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, it's just natural
20:19Just right there, bang!
20:21By the power and knowledge and spirituality
20:27This is my law
20:30It come from the soil
20:31From Mother Earth
20:32Yours 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, Gullaroy Yunupingu, says he plans to lodge a native title compensation claim over Borkside mining land in
20:57Gove within months
20:59Over 50 years after all of the hubbub around the establishment of the mine, the bark petitions, we're back in
21:09the 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 bildwa and song
22:04Traditional owners in the Northern Territory have had a significant win in the High Court in a landmark case over
22:10native title rights
22:14The High Court decided that the land hadn't been acquired on just terms
22:19And 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
22:32My father, he would have been the happiest man alive, you know, when he would have been here today
22:40For winning 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
23:06You know, your bowel is not pumping properly
23:10It was serious, it was serious
23:12I could die at 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
23:24And just doing his ceremonial obligations
23:27Until he collapsed, as I recall
23:29And, um, yeah, it wasn't looking good
23:32And then, one day he came to me and Will 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
23:55You must go, you must go, we want your life
23:58Just go
24:00They will help you, those heart surgeons
24:04Because we need you
24:06We need you, this community needs you
24:09He hugged us
24:13And said, we're going, I'm going
24:18Today, we are now standing on sacred ground
24:29My circuit affects my heart
24:32It's thunder hard now
24:35I can dance
24:41And 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
24:58And step out and just take care of this community
25:02Good morning, everyone
25:05Good morning
25:07My families
25:08My board
25:10Widiana's role is becoming increasingly important in the sense that
25:16People are growing old, people are passing away
25:19And Widiana is stepping up
25:21Only Umara and Bilma
25:23Power
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 Rudder 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
25:46And I think because of Widiana'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, um, the royalties stop
26:06Um, the town will lose its main current employer
26:11When the compensation's finally paid out, there 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 in 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
26:40Because I wanted to be a leader
26:43And a good leader
26:44You know?
26:54So 2025, Vyothi Indi's back
26:57Mandawai passed away in 2013
26:59And so we're now working on what 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 Wittiana was a big part of doing that
27:18How many put your hands together, boys?
27:21We're one and the only
27:22And Shaka Kukwini!
27:36Mindawai, when he's still alive
27:38He would always think
27:40He wants the youth in the band to continue
27:43That was his legacy
27:45And I think he'd be proud of Wittiana today
27:48to 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
28:01because everyone knows that he's the original.
28:20We've got two grandkids.
28:23This is a girl and a boy.
28:29Two twins.
28:31Look, it's absolutely amazing that Wittiana Marika
28:34is still alive today with the things that he's had against him.
28:40He was never meant to die.
28:44He didn't die or disappear.
28:47He was meant to be here
28:49and to love Wittakala and its people.
28:54It's a crazy wild ride
28:56from 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.
29:09And I think it's definitely to be really proud.
29:15Fish coming out.
29:18We're the oldest culture on earth today.
29:24You know, always was and always will be.
29:28We're here.
29:30We're here.
29:31And we will be here forever.
29:33We're here.
29:42Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah.
29:45Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah.
29:47Oh, baby.
29:49Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
29:52Oh yeah, oh yeah
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