Walking for Truth

Read this piece from Hugo Comisari about the unbreakable link between Walking and Truth in this country, focusing on Jimmy Clements and John Noble's journey to Canberra in 1927 to assert their sovereign rights.

Walking for Truth
by Hugo Comisari
Delivered on 15 June 2024

There is an unbreakable link between Walking and Truth in this country. No matter how far our people are pushed – to missions reserves and fringes, we always used our ten toes to deliver Truth back to the places they tried to erase us from.

I can tell a story that isn’t well-known in this nation. It’s about a Wiradjuri man named Jimmy Clements and his friend John Noble, also known as Marvellous. As younger men, they walked Country – from Brungle, where Jimmy lived, to Dubbo to Goulburn, to Canberra and then back to Brungle. The walk from Brungle to Canberra is over 100 miles of mountainous terrain bitterly cold in the winter sweltering in the summer across the snow- capped Brindabellas, crossing the mighty Murrumbidgee. In 1927 Jimmy, who was about 80 years old, decided he had to one more big walk to make to Canberra.

1927 Canberra; the opening of Parliament House.

Jimmy and Marvellous heard Royalty from England were in Canberra to open parliament. Jimmy was a custodian of the waterways that Canberra lay on and, he was concerned that he hadn’t been invited to the opening of parliament in his town. Jimmy and Marvellous travelled a long way to get to Canberra to tell their truth, a journey of many days. Unlike Duchess Elizabeth acting as the youthful face of the British monarch and heir to the throne, however, Jimmy and Marvellous were old, dignified, and stern. Large white beards covered Jimmy’s face, and grey hair – long and dreadlocked – meant that only his nose and eyes were visible.

For settlers, Canberra was their brand-new national capital city. But for Jimmy, Canberra had been important for a long time. Canberra/Ngambri in his language was mother’s place meaning place between mother’s breasts. Jimmy knew his mother, and her mother’s mother considered Canberra a special place long before the big white house was built.

“Jimmy and John were from a different type of royalty – an older, deeper sovereignty of place. They came barefoot, wearing floppy swagman’s hats. They’d never been to Europe, neither had anyone on their family tree.”

Jimmy, on seeing a local policeman in decorative attire, thought he may be the Duke of York, promptly gave him a lecture about sovereignty.

Police tried to move Jimmy and Marvellous away without causing much disruption. A prominent, white, clergyman began to yell, that Jimmy was the most appropriate man to stand alongside the Duke and Duchess on the steps of parliament. The crowd outside parliament then offered Jimmy and Marvellous John money in admiration of their attendance. The police conceded and allowed Jimmy, Marvellous and their dog to stay at the event.

Jimmy stood on the steps of parliament, holding his swagman’s hat in one hand, and his bundhi (fighting mace) in the other. Asked by a journalist on the day what he wanted to achieve, Jimmy said he had “sovereign rights to the Federal Territory.”

Jimmy never made it back home from that last trip to Canberra; his life ended soon after his final walk was completed. On his way back to Brungle, only weeks after attending parliament, Jimmy died in the town of Queanbeyan, just outside Canberra. The papers made it clear that Jimmy was buried outside of consecrated ground at the cemetery in a small, unmarked plot. Marvellous died a few months later too, after making it to Cootamundra on the way home.

“Jimmy and Marvellous’ final walk delivered Truth. They knew you can’t whitewash us by building a big white house in a paddock full of white sheep and call it a day. He had a message to deliver, this place isn’t new, we’ve been here a long time, we’re still here and you aren’t getting rid of us.”

Just down the road here, at Parliament in Victoria in the 1870s and 80s you would have seen William Barak make that journey all the way from Coranderrk. It’s 70 odd kilometres and he did it many times. He did it to have his voice heard, and the Truth about Corranderk witnessed, and he wasn’t going to let a decision about him be made without him.

Just outside that parliament you’ll find a statue of Lady Gladys Nicholls, who was part of the famous walk-off at Cummeragunja. A walk-off that brought our living conditions to centre stage. Many of them kept walking, and you’ll find their ancestors all over Melbourne today.

We’re still walking across the Countries of this nation. We’re still telling the truth. Two hundred years later – settlers are still not hearing us.

We’re bringing back those messages. Not just from us, but from our old people. Telling their stories and their truths. Because every blackfella in this country has a thousand stories to tell. While we use our feet to deliver Truth we ask others to use their ears and find their heart. We’re custodians of these lands for a reason. And with each yarn we spin this nation benefits.