The Yorta Yorta people occupy a unique stretch of forest-wetlands that are located in what is now known as the central Murray - Goulburn region, across States of Victoria and New South Wales. Our lifestyle and culture was based on hunting, fishing and collecting food from the variety of food sources provided by the ancestral lands.



Being river based people however, most of our time was occupied by fishing, as the majority of food that was provided came from the rich network of rivers, lagoons, creeks, and wetlands which are still regarded as the life source and the spirit of the Yorta Yorta Nation. The now irregular floods that occur in this region are regarded by Yorta Yorta people as necessary for the replenishment of the natural food sources and for the survival of the forest-wetlands for the enjoyment of future generations. The survival of the ancestral lands is equally important for the continuity of Yorta Yorta peoples timeless connections with what they believe is theirs by inherent right and with what they continue to assert is something that ‘always was and always will be Yorta Yorta land’ — nothing will ever change that reality for the Yorta Yorta.

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The arrival of Europeans, however had a devastating impact on traditional groups such as the Yorta Yorta. Within the first generation of the European invasion, the Yorta Yorta population of some 5-6000 was reduced by 85 per cent. All indications at that time, particularly when viewed against the extent of destruction, is that we would eventually be wiped out as a distinct cultural group. Our ability to endure these forces and to survive as a people is an amazing example of the strength and courage of our ancestors, and a sad reflection on the mindset and brutality of the perpetrators of the scale of destruction that took place within such a short period of time.



The remaining Yorta Yorta population and other tribal groups from neighboring areas were eventually relocated at Maloga Mission on the New South Wales side of the Murray River in 1874. Maloga was eventually closed and the residents were relocated at Cummeragunja Mission in 1888-9 which became the place where the Yorta Yorta were able to regroup after the destruction that took place. It also provided a base for the development of what became the Aboriginal political movement in the 1930s led by some of Australia’s outstanding Indigenous political leaders like Uncle William Cooper and many others.



Other political activity in this period which involved Cummeragunja residents was the 1939 walk off in which the majority of residents packed up and 'walked off' in protest against the living conditions, the leasing of most of the reserve land to a European, and the oppressive laws of the reserve system (Bennett,1991:5).

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The Yorta Yorta continued to assert their inherent rights and have shown through oral, documentary, and material evidence, that their social, spiritual, economic and cultural links with the area have never been broken. No Tide of History as it was used to deny the Yorta Yorta their native title claim will ever wash away the long and continued connections that the Yorta continue to hold with their ancestral lands (Yorta Yorta Land Claim, 1984:1).