Brian Syron (19 November 1934 â€" 14 October 1993) was a human rights
advocate, teacher, actor, writer, stage director and Australia's first
Indigenous feature film director who has been recognised as the first
First Nations feature film director.He was born on 19 November 1934 in
Eora country in the inner city suburb of Balmain, Sydney, New South
Wales, but, as he wrote in various papers and books:Syron also lived
an indigenous life with his paternal grandmother in his ancestral
Birrippi lands at Minimbah, New South Wales, seven miles (11 km) up
the Coolongolook River from Forster and 200 miles (320 km) north of
Balmain. Minimbah means in Birripi language "Home of the Teacher" and
his traditional country encompassed Taree, Forster and the Great Lakes
area of the Wang Wauk and Coolonglook rivers on the North Coast. He
was a child of a bicultural marriage with his mother coming from the
coal fields of Yorkshire, England. His paternal dreaming was the
Eagle, although he described himself as a Magpie - half black, half
white. He was also exposed to Aboriginal mission life at Purfleet and
Forster through the 1930s and early 1940s and spent time as a 14- and
15-year-old in Grafton Correctional Centre. Even with this background,
Syron told the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC)
on 15 November 1992:
advocate, teacher, actor, writer, stage director and Australia's first
Indigenous feature film director who has been recognised as the first
First Nations feature film director.He was born on 19 November 1934 in
Eora country in the inner city suburb of Balmain, Sydney, New South
Wales, but, as he wrote in various papers and books:Syron also lived
an indigenous life with his paternal grandmother in his ancestral
Birrippi lands at Minimbah, New South Wales, seven miles (11 km) up
the Coolongolook River from Forster and 200 miles (320 km) north of
Balmain. Minimbah means in Birripi language "Home of the Teacher" and
his traditional country encompassed Taree, Forster and the Great Lakes
area of the Wang Wauk and Coolonglook rivers on the North Coast. He
was a child of a bicultural marriage with his mother coming from the
coal fields of Yorkshire, England. His paternal dreaming was the
Eagle, although he described himself as a Magpie - half black, half
white. He was also exposed to Aboriginal mission life at Purfleet and
Forster through the 1930s and early 1940s and spent time as a 14- and
15-year-old in Grafton Correctional Centre. Even with this background,
Syron told the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC)
on 15 November 1992:
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