Patricia O'Connor (elder)
Patricia O'Connor is an Australian Aboriginal elder of the Yugambeh people. She is known for her work in reviving the Yugambeh language and opening the Yugambeh Museum. In 2014 she received the NAIDOC Award for Female Elder of the Year, and in 2019 she was named a Queensland Great.
O'Connor with the Queen's Baton at Yugambeh Museum in 2018
The Yugambeh, also known as the Minyangbal, or Nganduwal, are an Aboriginal Australian people of South East Queensland and the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, their territory lies between the Logan and Tweed rivers. A term for an Aboriginal of the Yugambeh tribe is Mibunn, which is derived from the word for the Wedge-tailed Eagle. Historically, some anthropologists have erroneously referred to them as the Chepara, the term for a first-degree initiate. Archaeological evidence indicates Aboriginal people have occupied the area for tens of thousands of years. By the time European colonisation began, the Yugambeh had a complex network of groups, and kinship. The Yugambeh territory is subdivided among clan groups with each occupying a designated locality, each clan having certain rights and responsibilities in relation to their respective areas.
Ancestor exhibition at the Yugambeh Museum Language and Heritage Research Centre
Yugambeh Language used on signage during 2018 Commonwealth Games
Bilin Bilin, sitting outside a tent at the Deebing Creek Aboriginal Mission, ca. 1900
Yugambeh War Memorial, Burleigh Heads