Country and western singer and aboriginal activist Uncle Johnny Lovett of Hamilton has been inducted into the Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll.
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Mr Lovett, 70, a respected Gunditjmara/Boandik elder, has advocated for native title rights as well as recognition and compensation for his father and uncles as Aboriginal soldiers who served in World War I and World War II.
He has also been performing country music for 60 years and performed only last week at a country music festival in Shepparton.
He was educated in Heywood and grew up in the Hamilton and Heywood areas. He was the only Aboriginal student at both his primary and secondary schools.
Mr Lovett has been actively involved in the Aboriginal community his whole life, managing the George Wright Hostel in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, which provides support, accommodation and meals for homeless Aboriginal men in and around Fitzroy.
He was also actively involved in the recognition of native title rights of the Gunditjmara people, a struggle that took 17 years to achieve.
He joins his sister, Iris Lovett Gardener, his father Herbert Stahle Lovett, and three of his uncles on the Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll.
Mr Lovett has fought tirelessly for his father and uncles to be properly recognised and compensated as Aboriginal soldiers who fought in World War I and World War II.
His father’s application for a soldier settlement block at Lake Condah, west of Macarthur, was rejected on the grounds of race and Mr Lovett has fought for compensation for that injustice.
Mr Lovett’s efforts and commitment to country music are remarkable. He is a talented, self-taught musician in guitar and piano.
He has been a solo artist and a band member of Black Opal, Wild Wood, and Lovett or Leavitt.
He has used his music to raise awareness about many Aboriginal causes.
Mr Lovett wrote and recorded ‘Gunditjmara People’ that is now seen as an anthem for the Gunditjmara people of the south west.
He also wrote the song ‘Maralinga’ in response to the Australian Government providing a permanent test site at Maralinga in South Australia for British nuclear testing in the 1950s and early 1960s.
The damage done to Aboriginal people in the vicinity of test sites included displacement, injury and death. Service personnel from several countries, but particularly Britain and Australia, also suffered.
His song recorded the devastation and destruction caused by the atomic bombs and the subsequent impacts on the nearby Anangu communities. Mr Lovett has gifted the song he wrote over 40 years ago to the Anangu community.
‘Maralinga’ was translated and recorded into Pitjantjatjarra language by Johnny and the Yalata Band in April 2016. It was recorded in the two languages to retell the history of the families who moved to the Yalata township after the bombs and ensure the tragic chapter in Australia’s history was never forgotten.
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