From the Newsroom

Image by: Geoff Helisma

Yaegl Elder’s portrait defaced

Geoff Helisma

A mural of Yaegl Elder Uncle Ron Herron, painted as part of NAIDOC Week celebrations, was vandalised over the weekend.

“It’s unacceptable and a kick in the guts for our mob as we try to raise our profile in Yaegl Country, following our successful native title claims,” Yaegl Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation’s CEO, William (Billy) Walker, said.

Mr Walker had just been advised of the incident when the Independent called; he said the issue would be addressed through his organisation’s normal processes.

Meanwhile, Debrah Novak, who is a Clarence Valley councillor, described the vandalism as ‘a low mongrel act’ on her personal Facebook page.

“To whoever has defaced this local artwork of Yaegl Aboriginal Elder Uncle Ron in Maclean, you should be hanging your head in absolute shame today,” she wrote.

“You clearly are uneducated, have no civic pride nor respect for our First Nation people or artworks.

“It is the 21st century; actions like these are not and will not be tolerated in the Clarence Valley.”

Ms Novak acknowledged the hurt likely to be felt by Yaegl people.

“To our Yaegl first nation family,” she wrote, “I am sure I can speak on behalf of our community, we are deeply sorry this has happened to your ‘pride on country’ artwork.

“We also apologise to the street artist Austin (#NITSUA) for this lack of respect for your artwork.”

She also appealed “to our community”, writing, “We need to step up and call this out.

“We need to not remain silent about important matters like this.

“We need to stand with our Yaegl family when shit like this happens.

“We need to unite not divide on racism.

“If you saw anyone doing this under the cover of darkness, ring the Maclean police now or anonymously contact CRIME STOPPERS 1800 333 000 or report online.”

Ms Novak said she found out what had happened when “some young Aboriginal people reached out to me, expressing their heartfelt concerns”.

The artist who painted the mural, Austin, said he was “sad someone would do something like this in this day and age”, however, he was focused on redoing the mural, while “coming from a place of love and to just help the community pay respect to the traditional owners of the land”.

“We are going to go back and do it again,” he said, “and it will be better and have an anti-graffiti clear coat over it, so if anyone comes along to do it again it can be cleaned off.

“I’ll be leaving it with Yaegl mob to make a decision about what they want me to do – I’ll be meeting with the elders and creating a brief for the council.”

Uncle Ron Heron has archaeology and anthropology degrees, lectured at Southern Cross University for 10 years and, in 2014, was awarded a Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) by Macquarie University.

Street artist Austin with the completed mural depicting Yaegl Elder Uncle Ron Heron- pre vandalism. Image Lynne Mowbray