Despite a lifetime of facing barriers, Uncle Henry Atkinson has built a legacy defined not by what was denied to him, but by what he has given back.
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From the segregated classrooms of his childhood to university lecture halls and museums across the world, he has spent decades advocating for his people.
It is this lifelong commitment that has seen him nominated for the Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll.
Born in 1940 on the verandah of the Echuca hospital, as many Aboriginal children were at the time, Uncle Henry entered a world shaped by inequality.
From a young age, he became acutely aware of the discrimination faced by Aboriginal people, especially in education.
“Going to school was pretty hard,” he said.
“For Aboriginal kids going to school then, they ended up just being in one class — segregated.
“We were kept down all the time, and so it was pretty bad in that sense.”
At just 14, Uncle Henry left school and began work at a local manufacturing company, where he remained for 16 years.
Outside work, he established himself as a talented athlete, excelling in football and basketball.
His athleticism caught the attention of the local fire brigade, and he quickly became a standout competitor in the CFA championships.
His connection with the organisation continued for decades.
Later, he played a key role in developing the CFA’s first Koori Inclusion Action Plan, designed to strengthen relationships between the organisation and First Nations communities.
In 1970, Uncle Henry moved to Melbourne with his family and began a long and successful career with General Electric.
It was through the company that he was given the opportunity to study at Monash University, a path he had never imagined for himself.
In 2003, he joined the Faculty of Education, where he made a lasting impact by reshaping the way future teachers were trained to understand and support Aboriginal students.
“Teachers were expecting the educators, the student teachers, to be teaching certain stuff and nobody's told them anything,” he said.
“They’ve got to know that story to be able to teach that properly, and that's what I've tried to put in place at Monash.”
Uncle Henry believed that improving the education system for Aboriginal students would help transform future generations.
His work helped pave the way for a more inclusive education system, ensuring Aboriginal children would have opportunities that were denied to his generation.
To honour his legacy, Monash University created the Uncle Henry and Bernadette Atkinson Indigenous Scholarship.
His impact, however, extends far beyond education.
For decades, he has worked on the repatriation of ancestral remains held in museums across Australia and around the world.
His efforts have taken him to England, France, Italy, the United States and Mexico, returning Ancestors to Country so they can be laid to rest with dignity.
While many countries welcomed Uncle Henry, the job has not always been easy.
On one occasion, while returning from the US with ancestral remains and the necessary documentation, he was stopped by armed security officers.
“I stood my ground, I wouldn't let them put it through X-ray and I wouldn't let anybody handle them,” he said.
“Next minute, there were security like anything ... I’m talking about 12 big burly guys with machine guns and whatever.
“I said, all right, well, I’ll open the box for you, but I don't want anybody to touch ... As soon as they had a look at what was there, they just disappeared.
“They're the sort of things that you get involved in ... you want people to respect you a little bit for what you're doing and not what you've got.”
Originally supported by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in the 1980s, Uncle Henry continued this work with Museums Victoria and the Federal Government’s international repatriation team.
He has also worked with three prime ministers to advocate for a national resting place, to create a dignified home for returned Ancestors whose origins cannot be found.
Alongside his dedication to education and cultural revival, Uncle Henry has been at the forefront of organisations established to further First Nations rights.
He is a founding member of the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations, a director and committee member of the Opening Doors Foundation and was part of the original Yorta Yorta native title claim.
He was also one of the Elders who helped revive the practice of possum skin cloak-making in Victoria, through the Possum Skin Cloak Project.
In 2022, Uncle Henry was named a NAIDOC Elder by the Victorian NAIDOC Committee.
Now, he is once again being acknowledged through an Honour Roll nomination, a moment he hopes will inspire Aboriginal youth to aim higher.
“If you're at school, continue to do your best, try and achieve to be the best but at the same time think of the past, what those Elders did for you to be here today,” he said.
“Spot a star, keep on going, follow it, don’t give up.”