William John Kennedy (1919–2005), better known as Uncle Jack Kennedy, was a lifelong activist for the rights of

Australian Aboriginal people Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

, a Wotjobaluk clan elder of the people who spoke the

Wergaia The Wergaia or Werrigia people are an Aboriginal Australian group in the Mallee and Wimmera regions of north-Western Victoria, made up of a number of clans. The people were also known as the Maligundidj (in the Wotjobaluk language) which mea ...

language in the

Wimmera The Wimmera is a region of the Australian state of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the Loddon Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Aust ...

region of western

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in ...

. He was born on 23 March 1919 on the banks of the

Wimmera River The Wimmera River, an inland intermittent river of the Wimmera catchment, is located in the Grampians and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. Rising in the Pyrenees, on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, the Wimme ...

, not far from the

Ebenezer Mission Ebenezer Mission, also known as Wimmera mission, Hindmarsh mission and Dimboola mission, was a mission station for Aboriginal people established near Lake Hindmarsh in Victoria, Australia (near Jeparit) in 1859 by the Moravian Church on the lan ...

and died on 6 September 2005.
Turning back the tide of history
',

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...

, 8 January 2006. Accessed 27 September 2009 He was the great grandson of

Dick-a-Dick Dick-a-Dick (traditional name ''Lavanya'', ''Jumgumjenanuke'' or ''Jungunjinuke'',Munro, p. 54. c. 1834 – 3 September 1870) was an Australian Aboriginal tracker and cricketer, a Wotjobaluk man who spoke the Wergaia language in the Wimmera re ...

, a member of the first Australian cricket team to tour England in 1867–68. He served with the Australian Army in the Syrian Campaign and

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

and later in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and was awarded the

Australian Service Medal The Australian Service Medal is an Australian military decoration. It was authorised 13 September 1988 to recognise prescribed service in peacekeeping and non-warlike operations. It is awarded with a clasp to denote the prescribed operation and ...

and the English Defence Medal for this service. In 2003 he was named Male Elder of the Year at the National Aborigines' Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) Week Awards.
Western Vic elder wins honour
', ABC News, 14 July 2003. Accessed 26 September 2009. In the historic determination of native title in the Wimmera handed down on 13 December 2005, just 3 months after Kennedy's death, Justice

Ron Merkel Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald. Ron or RON may also refer to: Arts and media * Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character * Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character *Ron Douglas, the protagonist in ''Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...

said of Kennedy, as reported by

newspaper: In his reasons for judgement Merkel directly quoted Kennedy twice:Federal Court of Australia,
Clarke on behalf of the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagulk Peoples v Victoria [2005] FCA 1795 (13 December 2005)
', AUSTLII, 13 December 2005. Accessed 10 September 2011. and

References

External links

- Mission Voices - Koorie Heritage Trust on the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

website *
Wotjobaluk man as told by William John Kennedy Snr
', Interview by Tracey Rigney, Eureka Street, 8 July 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, William John 1919 births 2005 deaths People from Victoria (Australia) Australian indigenous rights activists Wergaia Australian military personnel of World War II