Burnum Burnum

Burnum Burnum (1936–1997), Woiworung/Yorta Yorta activist, actor and author, was born at Wallaga Lake and taken from his family at three months old after his mother died. As Harry Penrith, he spent his childhood at Bomaderry children’s home and the notorious Kinchela Boys’ home. A talented sportsman, he played first grade rugby union for Parramatta, as well as rugby league and cricket. He then joined the Australian public service, working for the Department of Agriculture for thirteen years. In the mid-1960s he became involved with Indigenous rights activism, lobbying for the 1967 Referendum. While studying law at the University of Tasmania he led a successful campaign to reclaim the remains of Truganini from the Tasmanian Museum in Hobart. He was part of the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and the following year worked as a manager of Aboriginal Hostels. He received a Churchill Fellowship to travel overseas to study accommodation techniques in overseas hostels for Indigenous cultures. In 1976 he changed his name to Burnum Burnum (great warrior) to honour his great-grandfather, artist Tommy McRae, and to attest to his Aboriginality. Burnum ran for the Australian Senate as an independent in 1983 and 1984. During the bicentenary celebrations in 1988 he laid claim to England at the white cliffs of Dover, erecting the Aboriginal flag. That year he wrote Burnum Burnum's Aboriginal Australia: A Traveller's Guide. A biography by JM Norst, A Warrior for Peace: Burnum Burnum, was published in 1999.