Saltwater people want to share their story

Graham Dillon was born and raised on the banks of the Nerang River, becoming an elder and keeper of indigenous history and culture that he dreams of showcasing to benefit all – but at 88, the clock is ticking

BLACK culture matters. For better or worse, the Gold Coast is not a city where protests happen. Certainly for better, it’s not a city where riots occur or buildings are burned.

But it is a city with a long indigenous history that has largely been, for want of a better word, whitewashed. While Graham Dillon OAM, the senior elder of the Kombumerri NgarangWal Saltwater People of the Gold Coast and Elder in Residence at Griffith University, would love for all Gold Coast residents to listen to the stories of our indigenous heritage, he does not ask anyone to take to the streets in anger or shout down our leaders.

Instead, he wants black and white to simply celebrate our city and our history together.

And he has just the venue in mind.

For 30 years, the former Kalwun Development Corporation general manager – who was awarded a doctorate from Griffith University, along with a Centenary Medal and an Order of Australia Medal – has been campaigning for an Aboriginal cultural centre, with the project finally listed as part of The Spit draft masterplan released in March 2019.

As a director of Moondawera Incorporated, which represents the local indigenous community, Graham says the facility would be a major new tourism contender for the city and would benefit all Gold Coast residents.

Designed as a “one-stopshop for tourists” and showcasing indigenous stories and culture from around Australia in rotating exhibitions, as well as hosting an indigenous fashion week and re-enacting first contact with Captain Cook’s ship, Graham says the centre would not only turbocharge indigenous tourism for the city, but also act as a bridge for reconciling the black and white history of the Gold Coast.

Yet at the age of 88, and having suffered a stroke 10 months ago, Graham fears he might never live to see the completion of the centre, with little communication from the Queensland Government on future plans for the development.

While Graham accepts the pandemic has stalled the state, he says Australian participation in the global Black Lives Matter movement shows there is no better time than now and no better place than here to make a statement that is more than simply lip service.

“It’s the culmination of my life’s work to see this indigenous cultural centre built at The Spit,” he says.

“Socially, this is the time to listen to the stories from our elders and understand the history of this magnificent city.

“Economically, for far too long we’ve been missing a trick when it comes to indigenous tourism. The things that overseas tourists most want to see are our native flora and fauna and our native culture.

“We have Dreamworld and Sea World and they are great, they’re a fun drawcard to our city but they are very American.

“Let’s see something truly Australian that’s inclusive to all, that benefits us all.

“Watching what has happened overseas with Black Lives Matter and the violence against black people, it greatly troubles me. And I believe one of the best things we can do right now to show that we care about black lives in Australia is to celebrate our indigenous culture together.”

There are not many – if any – other Gold Coast residents who can trace their family history in this city as far back as Graham. Not only was he born in Southport in 1931, but his mother and grandmother were also born there and his great-grandmother and beyond were born in the “high country’’ of the Hinterland.

Graham’s childhood was spent on the banks of the Nerang River, fishing and crabbing and living on land where multi-million-dollar mansions now sit.

“My brothers and sisters and I, we grew up an idyll existence.

“As typical Aborigines we lived off the land and the water. We lived right in the middle of the river, down from TSS. We’d go out in a small boat. We’d never worry about sharks because they were so well fed. The water was crystal clear, beautiful saltwater.

“We’d load in the oysters and we had aunties and uncles all the way along the riverbanks and we’d share it with them all. That was our saltwater culture, living off the land.

“Unfortunately, when Sir Bruce Small came along and put in all the canals like what he saw in Florida, that ruined the old natural world of the Gold Coast. It altered the nature and environment and the character of my country.

“All the mangrove trees that fringed the Gold Coast, that was the breeding area for the fish, crabs and oysters, where all the young ones lived. Once they go, it’s all gone. All of our traditional fishing grounds were destroyed.

“People say you can’t stop progress and that’s true. But it should be orderly. There should be rules, not just an overload of development.

“No one ever asked me or my family or any indigenous people what we thought about these changes, and we could have told them the natural destruction it would cause. But no one would ever have listened, we were nothing.

“Our way of life was destroyed here on the Gold Coast in the 1960s and 70s. We were crushed and we faded away. Our community was broken apart. That’s the gospel truth.”

Graham says he does not believe that our city’s former leaders were racist … but they never thought to include indigenous voices in their decisions.

He says he does not want to see a city where black or white is favoured, but where we can live together and acknowledge our mutual history, good and bad.

“If you look at God’s word in Genesis, it says ‘of one blood hath He made mankind’. That’s not my

‘The canals ruined the old natural world of the Gold Coast’

words, those are God’s words. It doesn’t matter if you are black, white, red, we are all the same. We are one family on mother Earth.

“I think what is disappointing on the Gold Coast is how we have been ignored and overlooked. But we can change that.

“We don’t have to march, or riot to be heard. W are just asking the city to celebrate with us. We have an amazing cultural history that we want to share – and the white fellas are part of it too. We all love this city and we should be able to do that together.

“I just ask that our leaders include us in our city’s future and in celebrating our city’s past.”

In fact, Graham’s own family history is one of love, friendship and inclusion in the heart of the city. He says his grandmother Jenny, whose history is memorialised on a plaque at James Overell Park in Brighton Pde, Southport, was protected by white settlers in the area.

“Jenny was living along the riverbank at Gardiner Island. They lived there safely away from the protectors, who were the government men commissioned to round up the blacks and herd them into the missions. There was a Lutheran one at Nerang.

“They lived there very quietly and then one day a man named Alexander

Hamilton Graham, a whitefella and a Scotsman, came down from Brisbane and he was commissioned as keeper of the buoys on the banks of the Nerang River.

“He saw my grandmother Jenny and he fell in love with her. But when the men in Brisbane heard about that, they sent down the troopers to search for them. They didn’t want blacks and whites cohabiting.

“They came down to get my grandmother. They wouldn’t have killed Andrew Hamilton Graham because he was a white man, but they would have taken Jenny away and … the word in that day was ‘dispersed’. It was a softer way of saying they would have got rid of her or killed her.

“But at that time there were two German market gardeners growing small crops off the riverbank who befriended my grandparents, Jenny and

Andrew, and when the troopers came down, they hid them up in a tree. From that day they lived happily ever after, and we were all born and lived in Southport.”

Graham says learning about our city’s past is the key to a better future for all residents. He says all education is positive and is the reason for his extensive list of accomplishments, including a city park named after him off Hinkler Dve at Nerang.

“My mother died when she was 46 and my brother found an opportunity to send me to Nudgee College,” he says.

“When I was given access to an education, I took every opportunity I could to learn. It’s the key to moving forward.

“That’s why I so passionately want this cultural centre for the Gold Coast. It’s an opportunity to learn.

“We don’t want this to be some jacky-jack little shed that’s set up. Our plan is for a three-storey state-of-the-art centre. The plans alone cost $60,000. We want this to be something that all Gold Coasters take pride in, something that brings the tourists here and is of benefit to the whole city, socially and economically.

“We are ready and waiting for the government to make a move, please don’t let this die of inertia. Now is the time.

“Show us that black culture matters.”

‘They sent troopers. They didn’t want blacks and whites cohabiting.’