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Yorta Yorta man William Cooper was a driving force in the early fight for Indigenous rights and well known for his petition to the King of England demanding a Voice to parliament in the 1930s.

But while this was one of his most famous campaigns, William Cooper’s activism and impact went well beyond this petition as he fought for the rights of others around the world, oppressed by poverty, inequality and government policy of the time.

In 1938, William Cooper lodged a personal protest against the treatment of European Jews in Nazi Germany, walking from his home in Footscray to the German consulate in South Melbourne. It was one of the first protests in the world against the actions of the Nazis.

In honour of this legacy and to better understand First Nations perspective, history and culture, the Jewish orthodox school, Mount Scopus Memorial College, offers its Year 9 students the Yorta Yorta Beyachad program – Beyachad which means ‘together’ in Hebrew.

As part of this program, the students spend a week ‘On Country’ each year, visiting significant sites and meeting with key Aboriginal community organisations.

Last year, Greater Shepparton Secondary College hosted the program participants for the first time with a number of First Nations students participating in a half-day cultural interchange.

Icebreaker activities revealed commonalities between the two somewhat different backgrounds and cultures, such as the ongoing impact of intergenerational trauma stemming from the Holocaust and the Stolen Generation. It was also discovered that ceremonies that mark ‘the coming of age’ also share the same underlying rite of passage themes and family and connection to community are regarded of high importance.

Students then engaged in Traditional Indigenous Games and visited Kaiela Arts and SAM together.

GSSC Executive Principal, Barbara O’Brien said due to the success of last year’s cultural exchange, Mount Scopus Memorial College have again visited GSSC this year as part of the College's NAIDOC Week celebrations.held during the last week of term.

“The two-way benefits of this exchange are invaluable, with students able to share and learn about each other’s culture and history, while also building new connections and friendships.

“It is fitting that the theme of this year’s NAIDOC Week is ‘for our elders’ because the impact William Cooper had fighting for the rights of First Nations peoples and other minority groups of the time continues to be an inspiring story for all of us and particularly for our new generation of leaders in these students.”

Mount Scopus Principal Rabbi James Kennard echoed Ms O’Brien’s sentiment and said his College was delighted to have its students visit Shepparton and Yorta Yorta country and experience a true cultural exchange.

“Having run this program for many years, we know what a real difference it makes to our students and their understanding of the lives of First Nations Australians.

“We are very grateful to GSSC for facilitating the visit.”

Learn more about William Cooper here: https://www.firstpeoplesrelations.vic.gov.au/william-cooper

William Cooper – a leader of leaders

William Cooper’s political lobbying in the 1930s was an important precursor to the more radical rights movement that followed. Cooper believed that Aboriginal people should be represented in Parliament, an outcome he continued to pursue despite disheartening results in his lifetime.

Born in 1861, Cooper spent most of his life near the junction of the Murray and Goulburn rivers, in the Yorta Yorta nation of his mother. He lived on missions and state-funded reserves in New South Wales and Victoria, including the Maloga Mission, where he met his first wife, and the Cummeragunja Mission, where he moved shortly after its establishment in 1886.

Typical of the government-run reserves of the day, the freedoms of the Aboriginal families who lived at Cummeragunja were severely restricted.

From 1908, the independence afforded to Cummeragunja residents was gradually eroded. The New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board cut investment and repossessed farmland. Defiantly, Cooper, along with several other men, confronted the reserve's Board-appointed manager in protest of these policies. As a result he was expelled from Cummeragunja.

Cooper began to balance farm work with politics, spurred on by the poverty and inequality that surrounded him. He joined the Australian Workers' Union and represented Aboriginal workers in western New South Wales and central Victoria. He championed remote communities that were denied aid during drought and the Depression. He learnt basic literacy. He also briefly returned to Cummeragunja.

Significant events

  • One of Cooper's most famous campaigns was a petition to King George V. Its primary demand was for the right to propose a Member of Parliament who directly represented Aboriginal people. Between 1934 and 1937, Cooper obtained 1814 signatures from around the country. Unfortunately, on a constitutional technicality, the Commonwealth Government refused to pass the petition to the King.
  • In 1936, Cooper, along with others, established the Australian Aborigines' League. In doing so he formalised the actions of a group of ex-Cummeragunja residents who had been working together for several years. It was the first advocacy organisation with an entirely Aboriginal membership and the predecessor to the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League, into which it was eventually incorporated.
  • With Cooper as secretary, the League's approach was to use existing democratic channels to achieve positive outcomes for Indigenous Australians. Although success was limited, they did influence a decision by the Commonwealth Government in 1937 to hold a conference to discuss the formation of a national policy on Aborigines.
  • Cooper held an 'Aboriginal Day of Mourning' on 26 January 1938. It coincided the 150th anniversary of the landing of the First Fleet and raised awareness of what this meant for the Indigenous population. The day evolved into a National Aborigines Day, or Aboriginal Sunday, first observed in 1940. Today, the celebrations of NAIDOC Week have their roots in Cooper's original day of remembrance.
  • William Cooper died in 1941, years before much that he fought for was finally achieved. But Cooper's Australian Aborigines' League, and the publicity it generated, marked an important turning point. Cooper inspired and mentored a new generation of leaders – people like Sir Doug Nicholls - who would go on to break down barriers.

SOURCE: First Peoples – State Relations

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On Friday 16th June, GSSC took a team of 40 students to Benalla for the Hume Region Cross Country Championships. Special mention to Kazadi Kadima who won the 14 years boys age group in a time of 10:02.67 for his 3km run. Kazadi will be representing GSSC at the School Sport Victoria Championships in July along with the following students who also qualified:

  • Cody O'Donnell - 8th in the 14 years boys
  • Jai Laws - 7th in the 15 years boys
  • Liam Exton - 10th in the 15 years boys
  • Jayden Pert - 9th in the 16 years boys
  • Samantha Comline - 11th in the 17-20 years girls

Our 14 years boys team of Kazadi Kadima, Cody O'Donnell & Ayden McCrae and the 17-20 years boys team of Damon Moloney, Gamar Bakhiet & Nicholas Vella both came in second place in the teams division.

All results from the Hume Region Cross Country Championships can be found at: https://tomatotiming.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16&RId=29481

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