The late Mr Onus was a Yorta Yorta man, born in 1906 at Cummeragunja, near Barmah, an Aboriginal reserve I visited at least once with my dad, who was always in the area, as he frequently used Barmah Forest as a place to leave his bee hives.
But there was more. Through my mother, I was involved with the Echuca Church of Christ and for better or worse, right or wrong, congregation members occasionally visited the Cummeragunja Reserve, and sometimes, I went with them.
I recall meeting the late Pastor Doug Nicholls, another Yorta Yorta man who was also born at Cummeragunja in 1906, at the Church of Christ manse, which was then about half a block away from the church on the corner of Sturt and Pakenham Sts.
That was after his career as a footballer, athlete and boxer, but before he was knighted. He became the governor of South Australia in 1976 as Sir Pastor Doug Nicholls.
The memories continued to be prompted by the movie, as one of the interviewees was Yorta Yorta man Wayne Atkinson, who was from Echuca, my home town, and the brother of the late Clive, who was a printer at the town’s newspaper, the Riverine Herald, where my career as a reporter began.
My life and that of the Atkinson family were oddly intertwined, as I went to the Echuca Technical School with Wayne’s younger brother, Graham.
And yet, there is more. Through my involvement with the Echuca Church of Christ youth group and a wonderfully progressive young minister, we organised a monthly evening coffee club in the church hall.
That was an early 1960s social event aimed at bringing young people into the church’s orbit in an inviting way with subdued light, the equivalent of bean bags, coffee, snacks and, of course, music.
That Atkinson connection continued, as local rock band The Shades, made up of brothers Wayne, Clive and Graham with their good friend Paul Burchell, kept the joint jumping.
Those appearances at the church hall must have helped the group sharpen its act, as the Atkinson boys and their friend Paul went on to win Benalla’s Battle of the Bands.
That connection with the Atkinsons, although unintentional, continued as Wayne’s wife, Wendy, and her two girls, Yolanda and Gabrielle (known to most as Gabby), lived nearby in the same group of units.
Both Wayne and Graham have gone on to do powerful and critical work for Indigenous people, particularly Yorta Yorta people.
And so the movie Ablaze told the story of Mr Onus, and while that was fascinating in itself, it was personally powerful in that it sent me spiralling back through my youth, refreshing, directly and emotionally, my connections with the Atkinson family.
Ablaze was brought here by the Shepparton Region Reconciliation Group and the University of Melbourne.
Robert McLean is a former editor of The News.
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