Flags at half mast for revered Aboriginal Elder Eric Bell

The Aboriginal and Australian flags flew at half mast today as a mark of respect for late Ngunnawal Elder Eric Bell OAM, who passed away overnight on Tuesday.

The revered Yass identity and community advocate had been gravely ill in hospital for two weeks with complications brought on from lung cancer and dementia.

His funeral will be held on Tuesday at 1pm, with police cordoning off the procession from Saint Augustine’s Catholic Church because of the expected attendance numbers.

The region is in mourning because the respected Elder brought so much wisdom and love to so many people within the community.

Eric was awarded an Order of Australia medal in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours for his service to the Indigenous community through aged care, environment and employment organisations.

His gentle all-inclusive nature made him a sought-after community advocate.

He was most recently involved in managing a team of local Indigenous men and women to rehabilitate the landscape along the Yass River as part of the Munnagai Yerribi Nature Walk project.

Throughout his life he volunteered wisdom and time to organisations and committees through roles as Chairperson of Buranya Aboriginal Corporation, inaugural member of the Aboriginal Advisory Committee, Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care (NSW), Director of the Yass Soldiers Club, Director of Onerwal Aboriginal Land Council, member of the Yass Area Network of Landcare Groups, member of the Murrumbidgee CMA Indigenous Reference Group, Director of Ngunnawal Aboriginal Committee, Member of Yass District Hospital’s Advisory Committee and Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Medical Service, and community representative of the Yass Valley Council Indigenous Consultative Committee, to name a few.

Eric’s standing in the general community was highly respected by local police and courts personnel who often sought his services as a mediating link between those agencies and his people.

Eric often shared memories of his childhood, growing up on the government-run Hollywood Mission, on the outskirts of Yass.

His family was one of only six Aboriginal families permitted to stay in Yass after the mission closed in 1955. He took care to record the historical and cultural significance of the area by recounting childhood memories for the From Little Things Big Things Grow Fighting For Indigenous Rights 1920-1970 exhibition at National Australia Museum.

His life has also been captured within the pages Looking Back: My Story  by local author Tony MacQuillan.

Mr MacQuillan grew close to Eric as his biographer, and had this to say this afternoon;

“Vale Eric Bell, Mate.

“Eric Bernard Bell OAM, Ngunnawal Elder, who left us on Tuesday night, 1 December 2015 for a better place, was born on 7 March 1940 in his parents’ house in North Yass shortly after his twin brother, Walter James Bell (1940- 1941).

“Eric lived on Aboriginal Reserves for the early part of his life and gained his formal education from both public and private educational systems. He was an avid reader from an early age.

“His life experiences, which he willingly related to me as his biographer over a period of some two years in 2009/2011, have proved of great interest to his fellow Yass citizens, both Ngunnawal and non-Aboriginal as well as to a wider audience. Eric epitomised the value of developing positive attitudes in life, being open and accepting of all and he was particularly known for the care that he offered to others, young and old.

“We all share our descent from East African forebears, from whom the entire human race originates. The amusing consideration that in 1935, I was actually born not far from the equator and Olduvai Gorge has little to do with my far distant ancestors departing from Africa some thirty thousand years ago whilst Eric’s Australian Aboriginal forebears left the same locality on their long journey to Australia some sixty thousand years ago! Eric refused to accept the idea that skin colour was a consideration against which people should be judged.

“I have had personal experience of South African apartheid as well as Irish and other bigotries during my lifetime, but these all pale into insignificance compared with Eric’s experience of growing up, with his Australian Aboriginality. Eric demonstrated great resilience to racial and social impediments and throughout his life, moved forward consistently despite having to encounter many barriers.

“In the Queen’s Birthday Honours List of 13 June 2011, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia, OAM; the citation read: For service to the indigenous community through age care, the environment and employment organisations.

“Eric contributed far more to the Yass Community than these brief words suggest. His tireless efforts towards bringing together all of us, regardless of back ground was well recognised and is a gift to the community that has been greatly appreciated and one which will live on beyond his passing.

“Eric Bell’s sense of humour is legendary; when he received the OAM, he said “You know it really means Old Aboriginal Man, mate”. And when people remarked how much they had enjoyed reading his autobiography he was wont to say “I haven’t read it, mate”.

“It was a privilege to know Eric and enjoy his affectionate mateship and good humour.

“On behalf of our many mutual friends I extend to his wife Kay and all his family our condolences at the passing of Uncle Eric, as he was affectionately known.”

Eric Bell; a consummate gentleman.

GRAPHIC: Katharyn Brine