Anniversary of the Maloga Petition for Land

5 July 1881

A community demand for land

On 5 July 1881, a petition signed by 42 Maloga people was presented to the Governor of New South Wales. This entry uses the presentation date recorded in the Yorta Yorta land-justice chronology.

The petition sought sufficient land for cultivation, livestock and family homes. Its significance lies in Aboriginal people articulating their own needs and rights after the occupation of their Country by the colonial government and settlers.

People speaking for themselves

Maloga was a mission on the Murray River in New South Wales, closely connected to the later history of Cummeragunja. The petition belongs to the history of the people living there and their continuing relationship with Country.

Daniel Matthews carried the petition to Sydney on their behalf. His role should be acknowledged without allowing the missionary to displace the signatories from the centre of the story. They made the claim and explained why land was needed.

The Yorta Yorta chronology records that the request was initially refused. Land reserved in 1883 later became the site of Cummeragunja. Those developments should be explained as stages in a continuing struggle, rather than suggesting that one petition immediately secured unrestricted community ownership.

Reading a petition as historical evidence

A petition can reveal political organisation, family priorities and the terms in which people chose to address a government. Reading its demands challenges the assumption that Aboriginal people accepted dispossession or waited for others to act.

Compare the document with the official response and later accounts by Yorta Yorta researchers. Notice how an appeal for a secure future for families differs from the administrative language used to control people on missions and reserves.

This anniversary is separate from the Cummeragunja walk-off of 1939. Both deserve recognition, with the link between generations of advocacy made clear. For a school or workplace activity, trace the continuity of community demands for land, livelihood and decision-making across those events.

Sources and further reading

• Chronology of the Yorta Yorta struggle for land justice — Yorta Yorta researcher Wayne Atkinson
• The 1881 Maloga petition — La Trobe University
• Maloga petition and mission records — University of Melbourne archival guide

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