The Yorta Yorta people are the Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

 who traditionally lived around the junction of the Goulburn

Goulburn River (Victoria)

The Goulburn River is a major inland river in Victoria, Australia.The headwaters of the Goulburn River rise in the western end of the Victoria Alps, near Mount Buller. The Eildon Dam creates Lake Eildon, a major storage of water for irrigation...

 and Murray River

Murray River

The Murray River is Australia's longest river. At in length, the Murray rises in the Australian Alps, draining the western side of Australia's highest mountains and, for most of its length, meanders across Australia's inland plains, forming the border between New South Wales and Victoria as it...

s in present-day northeast Victoria.

Yorta Yorta Family Groups include the Bangerang, Kailtheban, Wollithiga, Moira, Ulupna, Kwat Kwat, Yalaba Yalaba and Nguaria-iiliam-wurrung clans.

The language is referred to generally as the Yorta Yorta language

Yorta Yorta language

Yorta Yorta is a a dialect cluster, or perhaps a group of closely related languages, once spoken by Yorta Yorta people, Indigenous Australians from the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day northeast Victoria...

.

Native title claim

In a Native title claim submitted in 1995 by the Yorta Yorta people it was determined by Justice Olney in 1998 that the ‘tide of history’ had ‘washed away’ any real acknowledgement of traditional laws and any real observance of traditional customs by the applicants. An appeal was made to the full bench of the Federal Court on the grounds that "the trial judge erroneously adopted a ‘frozen in time’ approach" and "failed to give sufficient recognition to the capacity of traditional laws and customs to adapt to changed circumstances". The Appeal was dismissed in a majority 2 to 1 decision. The case was taken on appeal to the High Court of Australia but also dismissed in a 5 to 2 majority ruling in December 2002.

In consequence of the failed native title claim, in May 2004 the Victorian State Government led by Premier Steve Bracks signed an historic co-operative management agreement with the Yorta Yorta people covering public land, rivers and lakes in north-central Victoria. The agreement gives the Yorta Yorta people a say in the management of traditional country including the Barmah State Park, Barmah State Forest, Kow Swamp

Kow Swamp Archaeological Site

The Kow Swamp archaeological site comprises a series of late Pleistocene burials within the lunette of the eastern rim of a former lake known as Kow Swamp. The site is located 10 km south-east of Cohuna in the central Murray Valley, in northern Victoria, at...

 and public land along the Murray and Goulburn rivers. Ultimate decision making responsibility was retained by the Environment Minister

Prominent Yorta Yorta people

William Cooper

William Cooper (Aboriginal Australian)

William Cooper was an Australian Aboriginal leader.-Early life:Born in Yorta Yorta territory around the intersection of the Murray and Goulburn Rivers in Victoria, Australia, he was forced to work for a variety of pastoral employers...

 (1861-1941) - helped establish the Australian Aborigines' League in 1935. He led the first Aboriginal deputation to a Commonwealth minister, and another to protest the treatment of German Jews in 1938. His daughter, Amy Charles, was the matron of the first Aboriginal hostel established in Melbourne. In August 2010, the Yad VaShem

Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....

 Holocaust museum in Israel announced they would honor William for his protests on behalf of Jews after Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...

. Yad Vashem plans to endow a small garden at its entrance in Cooper's honor. Cooper's name was submitted for recognition when it was discovered that Cooper's rally was the only private protest against Germany in the wake of Kristallnacht.

Jimmy Little

Jimmy Little

Jimmy Little AO , is an Australian Aboriginal musician, singer, songwriter and guitarist, whose career has spanned six decades. For many years he was the only Aboriginal star on the Australian music scene...

 (OAM

Order of Australia

The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...

) (born in 1937) - is a famous Aboriginal musician whose career has spanned over six decades. In 1999, ARIA

Australian Recording Industry Association

The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...

 inducted Little into its Hall of Fame

ARIA Hall of Fame

Since 1988 the Australian Recording Industry Association has inducted artists into its ARIA Hall of Fame. While most have been recognised at the annual ARIA Music Awards, in 2005 ARIA sought to create a separate standalone "ARIA Icons: Hall of Fame" event as only one or two acts could be inducted...

.

Sir Douglas Nicholls

Douglas Nicholls

Sir Douglas Ralph "Doug" Nicholls KCVO, OBE, was a prominent Aboriginal Australian from the Yorta Yorta people. He was a professional athlete, Churches of Christ pastor and church planter, ceremonial officer and a pioneering campaigner for reconciliation.Nicholls was the first Aboriginal person to...

 (1906-1988) - was a professional athlete, pastor with the Churches of Christ, pioneering campaigner for Aboriginal reconciliation, the first Aboriginal person to be knighted, and the first Aboriginal person appointed to vice-regal office, serving as Governor of South Australia 1976-77.

Burnum Burnum

Burnum Burnum

Burnum Burnum was an Australian Aboriginal activist, actor, and author. He was born a Woiworrung and Yorta Yorta man at Wallaga Lake in southern New South Wales...

 (1936-1997) was an Aboriginal activist, actor and author.

Eric Onus - played an active role both politically and socially among Victorian Aboriginal people. He was also a founding member of the Australian Aboriginal league established by William Cooper in mid 1930's.

Margaret Tucker

Margaret Tucker

Margaret Lilardia Tucker was an Indigenous Australian activist and writer.Margaret Tucker was born at Warrangesda Mission to William Clements, a Wiradjuri man and Teresa Clements, née Middleton, a Yulupna women...

 - an activist who grew up on Cummrugunja reserve. She was also a musician who sung at social occasions raising funds for war efforts.

David Wirrpanda

David Wirrpanda

David Selwyn Wirrpanda is a former Australian rules footballer, who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League between 1996 and 2009...

 - current AFL player with the West Coast Eagles

West Coast Eagles

The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League. The club is based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and played its first games in the 1987 season. Its current home ground is Subiaco Oval...

, known for his community work in helping to improve the lives of young indigenous Australians. The David Wirrpanda Foundation was launched in 2005. He was named the 9th most influential Aboriginal Australian by The Bulletin

The Bulletin

The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...

 magazine on 30 November 2007.http://afl.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/208/Default.aspx?newsId=53943

Andrew Walker

Andrew Walker (footballer)

Andrew "Tex" Walker is a professional Australian rules footballer playing with Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League .-Early life:...

, a current AFL Player with the Carlton Football Club

Carlton Football Club

The Carlton Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club competes in the Australian Football League, and was one of the eight founding members of that competition in 1897...

. He is a number one draft pick and took one of the contenders for "Mark of the Year" in 2011.