Major Lancelot Sumner[1] was born in 1948 on Point McLeay mission on the shore of Lake Alexandrina in South Australia,[2] one of 12 children. The family moved to Millicent in the South East of the state, but after his parents split up, he and several brothers were placed in a boys' home in Adelaide.[3] His father, Colin Rex Sumner, was buried in an unmarked grave in the West Terrace Cemetery in Adelaide after being allegedly murdered in a brawl in the north of the state. Moogy has been investigating how to find his father's remains and re-inter them at Long Point (aka Dapung Talkinjeri), where he was born.[4]
Sumner is of the Ngarrindjeri and Kaurna peoples,[5] with particular knowledge of and affiliation to Ngarrindjeri culture.[1]
Career
As a young man, Sumner worked in many places, including on the railways on the Nullarbor Plain.[3]
In 2010, he began the "Ringbalin Murrundi" Rover Spirit project, which relit the ceremonial fires along ancient Aboriginal trade routes of the Darling and Murray Rivers.[6][1] It is also known as "Dancing the River".[7] In 2010 he joined with other traditional owners in travelling down the river from Queensland to the Southern Ocean, performing ceremonies every night, in the ancient Ringbalin tradition that had been performed before colonisation but not since. The impetus for this undertaking was the decade-long drought, and, not long afterwards, the rains began that year, and there were record-breaking floods in the following year.[8]
In 2011, Sumner crafted the first Ngarrindjeri bark canoe on Country in over a century, which was dubbed "Moogy's Yuki".[6][2]
In August 2023 Sumner addressed the Climate Action I Assembly at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago, US.[9]
In November 2023, he was part of a delegation who went to Canberra to lobby the government on the issue of river health.[10]
Cultural activities
Sumner, also known as "Uncle Moogy" is an elder, dancer, cultural ambassador,[2] and activist,[11] who works to further Ngarrindjeri culture. Apart from traditional dance and song, cultural advice, he creates and advises on various traditional arts and crafts, including wood carving, and combat methods that employ traditional shields, clubs, boomerangs, and spears.[2] He has also built local, national, and international communities over many decades, and has become a community leader.[6]
In 1997 Sumner and his wife Loretta Sumner founded Tal Kin Jeri[12][13] (or Talkindjeri) dance group, and is still artistic director.[6][14]
Contributor, with wife Loretta and others, to a chapter in the 2022 volume Contested Holdings: Museum Collections in Political, Epistemic and Artistic Processes of Return[28]
Patron of the Wayapa Wurrk Aboriginal Wellness Foundation[1]
Member of the International Indigenous Repatriation Committee[1]
Recognition and honours
He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day honours in 2014, "For significant service to the Indigenous community of South Australia through contributions to health, social welfare, youth and cultural heritage organisations".[29][14]
In November 2020, Sumner was recognised as Elder of the Year in the City of Port Adelaide Enfield's ATSI Awards,[a] in which he was described as a "world-renowned performer and cultural ambassador of Ngarrindjeri arts, crafts, martial arts and traditional culture", "highly respected Elder", "local ambassador for Aboriginal people and culture within the City of Port Adelaide Enfield and the broader western Adelaide suburbs... an international, national and local icon".[26]
Sumner married Loretta Sumner, and they have a small leasehold on Aboriginal land not far from where he was born at Point McLeay. They had nine children, and as of 2018 had 28 grandchildren.[3]
The family lived in Canada for some time, to learn more about incorporating First Nations justice and law into modern judicial systems.[1]
A previous resident of Millicent in the South East of the state,[17] Sumner lives and works in Adelaide and at Camp Coorong.[27]
Footnotes
^Instigated by Josie Agius, Pat Waria-Read, and Susan Dixon in 1998; first awards held 1999.
^"Mr Major L Sumner". Australian Honours Search Facility. Australian Government. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 27 April 2024.