Tributes for our lost Aboriginal centenarians

TWO of Australia’s longest-lived Aborigines have died on opposite sides of the country, drawing praise for extraordinary lives that each spanned more than a century.

Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin yesterday led tributes for Yindjibarndi elder Ned Cheedy, who died in Western Australia on Sunday, aged about 105.

His passing followed that of Queenslander “Aunty” May Beckmann, also 105, who was said by her family to be the oldest Aboriginal woman alive.

Ms Macklin said Mr Cheedy had dedicated much of his life to teaching young people about his traditional country in WA’s Pilbara region.

Last year, he was awarded the prestigious NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his contribution to caring for Yindjibarndi law, culture and language and the future of his people.

“His outstanding contributions over the years helped to improve the lives of Aboriginal people in Yindjibarndi . . . and beyond,” Ms Macklin said.

Mrs Beckmann died in Toowoomba on March 4, and The Australian was asked by close relatives to mark “Aunty May’s” lifelong devotion to her family and community in Queensland.

She was born on October 22, 1906. As was common in that era, her parents, Norman Hoad and Alice Richards, were refused permission to marry by the then Protector of Aborigines in Queensland.

“She had contact with her Aboriginal grandmother and other members of her Aboriginal family, none of whom spoke English,” her niece, Marlene Watson, 74, said. “She learnt a little of their language and experienced some of their cultural practices.”

Mrs Beckmann spent her early childhood on a property at Wyandra, 800km west of Brisbane, where she helped cook for the stockmen.

She would become “carer” to her family after settling in the Pomona area in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, her niece said.

“She did everything she could to make her family happy,” Mrs Watson told The Australian.

Mr Cheedy was born in 1907 on Hooley Station in outback WA, where he worked as a stockman and windmill man.

Later, he moved to Roebourne Reserve so his children could get an education.

He went became a preacher at the Pilbara Aboriginal Church and travelled widely in his home state helping families affected by alcoholism.