LA TROBE University researchers have secured more than $1M through the prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Indigenous scheme to investigate the role Yorta Yorta people played in the Goulburn Valley fruit-picking industry.
The project is led by Professor Julie Andrews, Director of La Trobe’s Gabra Biik, Wurruwila Wutja Indigenous Research Centre, and Professor Katherine Ellinghaus from the School of Archaeology and History, in collaboration with Outback Academy Australia Chairperson, Leanne Miller AM.
The study will use family and clan-led research to explore how Yorta Yorta people engaged in fruit picking from the 1920s to the 1970s, and how their choices of labour and employer demonstrated acts of self-determination.
The Yorta Yorta people are Traditional Owners of the land of the central Murray and Goulburn region in north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales.
Professor Andrews and Ms Miller are proud Yorta Yorta women.
“We aim to advance understanding of the history of Australian capitalism by applying Aboriginal ways of thinking and doing,” said Professor Andrews.
“The project will provide significant social, cultural and commercial benefits by generating greater knowledge of Yorta Yorta fruit picking in the Goulburn Valley region and beyond.”
Leanne Miller AM said the research was about economic truth-telling.
“Outback Academy Australia is proud to support a project that not only honours our Elders’ labour but also reframes fruit picking as a powerful story of Aboriginal entrepreneurship and resilience,” Ms Miller said.
“We want to highlight the significant contributions our people have had on the local economy over the decades, in particular a major impact in the agriculture industry for the region such as fruit picking.”
The ARC Discovery Indigenous scheme supports projects led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers, and builds research capacity among higher degree students and early career researchers.
