‘One of a kind’: Tributes flow for Yirrganydji elder, George Skeene

A prominent Far North Queensland Indigenous elder and keen historian, George Skeene, has been remembered as a “one of a kind” by friends and peers.

Historian and Aboriginal elder from Yirrganydji tribe George Skeene has been remembered for his dedication to preserving Indigenous history and culture in Cairns.

A prominent Far North Queensland Indigenous elder and keen historian, George Skeene has been remembered as a “one of a kind” by friends and peers.

Mr Skeene, an Yirrganydji elder who died this week at the age of 71, was best known as a keen historian, anthropologist and sportsman.

Long-time friend Angela Freeman described him as “extremely articulate and outgoing”.

“He was a lovely person with a very great sense of humour. He was really able to engage with any person, very outgoing,” Ms Freeman said.

“I adored the man and I’m very, very sad that he’s passed away.”

Mr Skeene was born in Cairns in 1954 and grew up in an Aboriginal reserve camp.

Ms Freeman said she remembered chatting with Mr Skeene about growing up in segregated Australia, a point he fleshed out in his memoir Two Cultures.

“He and his family were one of the last Aboriginal families put onto a couple of reserves in Cairns and at that time there as racial segregation so they were rounded up and put into reserve areas,” she said.

Mr Skeene pictured with daughter Shannon Shaw (left) and friends Harry Freeman and Angela Freeman at the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, 2023.

“He was born at a time when Aboriginals were segregated at the hospital so if you went to go see people, you were separated into an Aboriginal area and he had a lot of memories about that type of thing, that life.”

As an adult, Mr Skeene worked as a labourer.

“George went on and worked in a couple of the early plywood mills in Cairns where he did a lot of labouring type work,” she said.

“He was a very hard worker. A lot of his adult life was spent working for Queensland railways and worked on various camps out west. and when he came back, he became involved in the Cairns Historical Society and was very much loved by them.”

“George made an enormous contribution to Indigenous historical research in the Cairns, North Queensland area,” she said.

“He was like a dog with a bone – he would find a piece of information and wouldn’t give up ‘til he tracked it down.”

His passion for Indigenous cultural knowledge led him to Germany where he found artefacts from tribes in and around Cairns, sitting in a German museum.

“He found very significant Aboriginal artefacts at a museum in Germany – some were destroyed, bombed, (in WWII) but there are photos of some artefacts,” she said.

Yirrganydji elder George Skeene received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from James Cook University due to his significant research on Indigenous history in the Cairns region. Photo: File.

“He spent a lot of time collecting things, collating things, documenting them and then he also did a lot of tours on country with students, and he has of course passed this knowledge to his family.

“He had enormous amount of information from his father … and he had incredible knowledge of the plants and culture generally.”
In her last visit with Mr Skeene, she said he continued to dream big and fulfil a number of plans.

“He was getting so frustrated … because there were so many things he wanted to do, he had so many plans and wanted to get doing all these other things he set himself,” she said.

“He was quite a driven person.”

Member for Leichardt Warren Entsch and long-time friend remembered Mr Skeene as a “real character”.

“He was somebody you absolutely respected, somebody who stood out in a crowd,” Mr Entsch said.

“He was so proud of his culture and heritage and he was so inclusive. A wonderful man … people like George don’t come around every day,” he said.

Mr Entsch said he always admired Mr Skeene’s passion and love for his Indigenous culture.

“While we will be saddened by his passing, at the end of the day, I’m very proud that I knew him and could call him a friend.
“He’s left an indelible mark which is typical George, never to be forgotten.

“He made himself, his culture and Aboriginality proud.”

Originally published as ‘One of a kind’: Tributes flow for Yirrganydji elder, George Skeene