8.20 Monica Morgan, VIC Monica Morgan is a Yorta Yorta woman, past CEO of the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC (YYNAC), and activist of over 50 years. Monica has been a key player in the establishment of many Aboriginal organisations and successful negotiations and campaigns such as the creation of the Barmah-Millewa National Park and Murray Valley National Park. Monica credits her mother, Elizabeth Morgan, and other strong and prominent activists whom she grew up watching and listening to, for her own strength, resilience, political understanding and strategic know-how. In her interview, Monica described the political context of the ongoing land rights struggle, of which native title became a part. She described the experiences of her family members who were heavily involved from both the legal and the political campaigning angles. She emphasised the work that her mother and the Aunties and Uncles achieved in all areas of First Nations rights – from welfare, to housing, to women’s and children’s rights, to land rights. And then native title entered the fray: ‘we were pushing our own claim through the courts when the Murray Island mob won Mabo (No. 2) in 1992’. Monica described the history of the Yorta Yorta land claim in the lead up to the Mabo decision and the big names that were backing them. They were organised, motivated, driven and on their way to their own land rights decision in the courts when it was stalled in the wake of Mabo and the political negotiations for the Native Title Act. Monica explained that the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service were told that they could not pursue the Yorta Yorta case any further until the Native Title Act was passed. Monica was there for the native title negotiations and remembered doing a ‘walk out’ with Lois O’Donogue. She said she was unimpressed and felt the ‘A’ Team had ‘railroaded’ the process, but her ‘Elders agreed to give it a shot’. Monica swung between talking about the political context and political work her people were doing, and the native title case. They were never separate – cultural heritage, repatriation of ancestral remains, land rights, native title and truth-telling. Monica described how important the truth-telling aspect of the native title claim process was to the Yorta Yorta. In their case, everyone was allowed to speak and give evidence. Critically, the Yorta Yorta controlled the process because they controlled the funding for legal representation and directly instructed their lawyers, who were very experienced and committed to empowering the Yorta Yorta as the top priority. The Yorta Yorta group had refused to be funded via the NTRB and lobbied hard to receive funding directly from ATSIC. Monica spoke of how devastating the Yorta Yorta determination91 was, especially to the Elders who had worked so hard and been through so much. However, Monica also described how their court loss did have some positive outcomes. The old people got a chance to tell their story. The Victorian Government knew that land claims must never happen like that again in Victoria. From the unsuccessful claim came the Yorta Yorta joint management agreement, and from there, a seat at the table in a number of respects. Monica described how, at the time, the Yorta Yorta loss unified First Nations people across the country. She remembered how they had received support from blackfellas generally. It also galvanised the Yorta Yorta political drive – ‘we decided we weren’t going to bow down.’ 106 Women in Native Title: Native Title Report 2024