Marion Scrymgour’s NAIDOC speech

Marion Scrymgour is the member for Arafura in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. Arafura is an electorate of more than 200,000 square kilometres that covers her homelands on the Tiwi Islands north of Darwin and large tracts of western and southern Arnhem land. Marion was first elected in 2001 and has held the seat since then.

Growing up as an Aboriginal person in Darwin part of my cultural education and orientation was to become aware at an early age that there were certain Larrakia families who were actively trying to achieve recognition and proper acknowledgment of their ancient connections to this city. Already by the mid-1970’s land rights champions like Bobby Secretary, Dolly Garinyi, Victor Williams, and members of some of the other families (I won’t name them all) were making their voices heard, at land rights rallies and elsewhere.

Every now and then there would be photos of these unsung heroes of mine in the local newspaper. This was all before the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act was passed by the Commonwealth and before recognition as a traditional owner carried with it any potential benefits.

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