EXODUS FROM CUMMERAGUNJA

… "1939 was a year of great turmoil", ... "not the best of times for a small group of 200 to 250 Aborigines to rebel against persecution"

In 2002 Bill and Lynne with the assistance of The Bangerang Culture Centre, Shepparton News and the financial support of the Victorian Government Community Support Fund were able to print 50 copies of this collection of News Clippings.

The clippings in this publication are all items appearing in the Shepparton News 1938 to 1961 which referred to the Aboriginal community. The items are both negative and positive without any form of censorship, by obliterating or omission, of the material.

They have now also been able, with the assistance of the Koori Heritage Trust Victoria, to print a limited number of an index to "Exodus from Cummeragunja". This index contains over 3000 items, including a large number of names from both the White and the Koori communities which Bill and Lynne hope will assist members of those communities to trace families and their movements through Victoria. This especially applies to those of the Aboriginal community effected by the separation policies of our, not so distant, Australian history.

Copies of the "Exodus from Cummeragunja" and the Index have been distributed, as an aid for research, to Aboriginal organizations, Educational facilities, Government departments and community individuals in Shepparton, Mooroopna and Melbourne. These reference books can be accessed for research through the State Libraries at Shepparton, Mooroopna and Melbourne, copies are also held at the National Library in Canberra


	INTRODUCTION TO "EXODUS FROM CUMMERAGUNJA" "1939 was a year of great turmoil, people were still reeling from the Great Depression. Victoria experienced the worse bush fire imaginable and Australia joined her allies and entered into the Second World War. If people could have control in history, this was arguably not the best of times for a small group of 200 to 250 Aborigines to rebel against persecution from a system that denied them basic rights and an administration that "made them feel a subject race", but it was a time of individuals who stood larger than life, highly esteemed names such as Paten, Nichols, James and Atkinson appear as leaders of the Aboriginal community from the very first reports in the Shepparton News of the Exodus." "You will read, we believe with disbelief, of the intolerance the lack of understanding and the outright racialism that this group of people suffered from authorities and the general public, but read with admiration of people with the stature of Sister Turner, Clydesdale, Howe, organizations such as "Save the Children" and "The Aboriginal Choir" and of leaders in sport such as Jeff Cooper, Hurtle Atkinson, Jimmy Murray, B.P.Nelson and many, many others who worked hard to change the public attitude towards the Aboriginal community."


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