Riding the Black Cockatoo (16 page)

I couldn’t have agreed more.

© Craig Abraham/Fairfaxphotos

Dja Dja Wurrung and Wamba Wamba Elder, Gary
Murray, dressed in the Wamba Wamba ceremonial
cloak with a Dja Dja Wurrung Bark etching.

© Newspix/Patrick Hamilton

Yorta Yorta songman Jason Tamiru presides
over Mary’s 2005 handover ceremony.

Kamilaroi Elder and repatriation
specialist Bob Weatherall.

Jason Tamiru receives the Wamba Wamba Ancestor.

© Newspix/Patrick Hamilton

©Courier-Mail.

© Rosalba Nattero

Jida Murray-Gulpilil, dancer, musician and cultural man. “No one can touch him.”

© Jida Gulpilil

Aboriginal Australia.

© Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies

Photo by Jida Gulpilil © John Danalis

John Danalis watches the Murray River
slide by from Wamba Wamba country.

© Wiran Aboriginal Corporation

Jida Gulpilil-Murray and Jason Tamiru preparing
the reburial graves. Mary’s black case sits
between the two men.

© Wiran Aboriginal Corporation

“They came
from all
over Victoria
and NSW.”
Traditional
Owners and
guests place gum
leaves upon the
Wamba Wamba
Ancestral
remains.

© Wiran Aboriginal Corporation

Clayton Mitchell-Murray, Adam Lampton, Jason Tamiru
(sitting) and Jida Gulpilil-Murray welcome and smoke
guests to the sacred Menera burial grounds. Mary’s
resting place is in the far paddock behind Jida.

© John Danalis

Mary’s Billabong