Elder from Crocodile Islands named Senior Australian of the Year

Aboriginal senior Elder, Laurie Baymarrwangga, has been honoured as the Senior Australian of the Year for preserving the culture and environment of East Arnhem Land.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the Territory recipient at this year’s Australian of the Year Awards in Canberra. Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups around Australia have welcomed the announcement, which appropriately honours Laurie Baymarrwangga’s many achievements. In the nine decades since her birth on the island of Murrungga, Laurie Baymarrwangga has seen the arrival of missionaries, exploitation by Japanese and European fishermen, war and tumultuous change.

Undaunted, she has almost single-handedly nurtured the inter-generational transmission of local ecological knowledge through a lifelong commitment to caring for kin, culture and country. In the 1960s Laurie established a housing project on her homelands that has benefitted generations of kin. Speaking no English, with no access to funding, resources or expertise she initiated the Yan-nhangu dictionary project. Her cultural maintenance projects include the Crocodile Islands Rangers, a junior rangers group and an online Yan-nhangu dictionary for school children.

In 2010, after a struggle stretching back to 1945, Laurie finally received back payments for rents owed to her as the land and sea owner of her father’s estate. She donated it all, around $400,000, to improve education and employment opportunities on the island and to establish a 1,000 square kilometre turtle sanctuary on her marine estate.

In the face of many obstacles, this great, great grandmother has shown extraordinary leadership and courage in caring for the cultural and biological integrity of her beloved Crocodile Islands.

• Further information:
  • View resource: Crocodile Islands Rangers and Yan-nhangu dictionary
  • View map: Crocodile Islands, Northern Territory
  • View information: Biography – Laurie Baymarrwangga
  • Crocodile Islands elder Senior Australian of Year
    View news item: ABC (26 January 2012)
  • View information: Australian of the Year Awards