Rodney Stevens

Aboriginal communities across Australia and people from the Northern Rivers are in mourning following the sudden passing of renowned Yaegl patriarch Uncle Ron Heron.

Uncle Ron Heron was born at Lismore in 1947, schooled in the mission system and worked in the Clarence Valley as a cane cutter and picking peas until he decided to make his mark on the world in his early 30’s.

His niece Lesley King told the CV Independent Uncle Ron was a working as a cane cutter when he woke one day determined to make his mark on Aboriginal society and education.

“Prior to all the studies he did, he was just an ordinary cane cutter, he used to go and do cane cutting all around the Clarence River,” she said.

“Then he woke up one day thinking he had to do something else with his life, he said he just decided ‘this isn’t me’, so he started studying, it was his own wake up call.

“So, he started working with Community Health in the Clarence Valley as an Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol counsellor, and he did a bit of work in the Richmond Valley travelling all around to places like Baryulgil.”

Lesley said Uncle Ron decided to go to university, so he moved the Canberra to study and graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Letters, by thesis (now Master of Letters) in prehistory and anthropology.

“After he got his degree, he came back to the Richmond River area and he worked at Southern Cross University at Lismore for 10 years lecturing in Indigenous Studies,” she said.

Once a year Macquarie University came to Maclean High School as part of the Rivers of Learning program and Uncle Ron was involved in a week of training and learning, Lesley said, then they would all celebrate together.

Contributions to extensive research at Macquarie University on bush medicines, in international scientific journals, lectures and storytelling led to Uncle Ron being awarded a Doctor of Letters honoris causa from Macquarie University in September 2014, an extremely proud moment for the family and the Yaegl people.

“The family were so proud of Uncle Ron, he worked hard all of his study life,” Lesley said.

“He was a very gentle man; he was very positive in everything he did.

“He was passionate about Aboriginal issues, mostly with archaeology, but also with National Parks and Wildlife, to help educate the other side of the world, the Europeans.

“Uncle Ron met tonnes of beautiful people in his work and in his training and left a positive mark with everyone he met.”

When a mural of Uncle Ron painted on a pump station at Maclean was graffitied in 2022, Lesley said he was ‘gutted’, but when artist Nitsua unveiled a repainted mural in June 2023, he was immensely proud.

During NAIDOC Week celebrations early this month, Lesley said Uncle Ron had a great time at the elders’ lunch and at the South Grafton community day.

“He was great, he was laughing and out meeting mates and friends and other Elders,” she said.

“Then he got sick on the weekend, and we took him to Maclean Hospital and all his tests were good until he had a blood test and we found out he had a heart attack.”

After the shock of the news Uncle Ron had suffered a heart attack, Lesley said arrangements were made for him to have bypass surgery, but tragically he passed away before the operation.

“He was taken from Maclean to Lismore, and he was to go to the Gold Coast on Thursday for a bypass and we lost him at the Lismore Hospital on Thursday morning,” she said.

“It just happened so quickly; it was so unexpected.

“He was the father of all of us Yaegl people after we lost our mum and for all the other’s that had lost their mum and dad.

“Right up until his passing he was teaching all of his grandchildren what he was trained to do.”

Uncle Ron Heron will be farewelled at the Maclean Anglican Church on Monday, July 24, at a time to be confirmed.