Yorta Yorta Country includes the riverine plains of the Goulburn Broken Catchment, including the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers. Yorta Yorta Country also extends into New South Wales.
Yorta Yorta Nation
Yorta Yorta Nation is today represented by the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation as a Registered Aboriginal Party under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006.
Yorta Yorta Country includes the riverine plains of the Goulburn Broken Catchment, including the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers. Yorta Yorta Country also extends into New South Wales.
In addition to the Registered Aboriginal party boundaries for Victoria, Yorta Yorta Country also extends into New South Wales. This map of Yorta Yorta Country shows Traditional land boundaries across State boundaries.
Welcome to Country
Yorta Yorta country radiates out from the Murray River on both sides in all compass directions, roughly from Cohuna in the west to just outside Albury/Wodonga in the east to a northerly point in NSW approximately 20-30 km past Finley and extends south into Victoria just short of Nagambie. Yorta Yorta region includes the lower Goulburn river, and towns such as Echuca, Cohuna, Shepparton, Benalla, Corowa, Wangaratta, Glenrowan, Rutherglen, Chiltern, Wahgunyah, Thoona, and Violet Town.
The people of the Yorta Yorta Nation are comprised of 8 different clan groups, where the Yorta Yorta language is spoken by all of the Yorta Yorta clans, including the Kailtheban, Wollithiga, Moira, Ulupna, Bangerang, Kwat Kwat, Yalaba Yalaba and Ngurai-illiam-wurrung clans. The Yorta Yorta Nation is comprised of peoples with undeniable bloodlines to the Original Ancestors of the Land of the Yorta Yorta Nation. These bloodlines link our past, present and future to one another, with traditional laws, customs, beliefs and sovereignty intact.
We have continued to exercise our natural rights as the indigenous occupants and owners of country. Our social, spiritual, economic and cultural links with the area have never been broken, in other words our relationship with our country has continued since time immemorial.
The survival of the ancestral lands, waters and all its children are equally important for the continuity of the Yorta Yorta timeless connection with our inherent right. For us – the land has a spiritual connection; it’s our mother. The human spirit is born from our land and creator and returns to it upon death. The land supplies us with everything that we need for living. We must look after it, so that it looks after us in return.
