A Wiradjuri man has urged Border Aboriginal people to get a COVID-19 vaccine, so the community does not get completely "wiped out" by the disease, after colonisation already killed hundreds of thousands of First Nations people.
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Albury's Darcy Brown, AKA boxing great Buddy Oldman, said it was important community members received a vaccine to protect their health and culture, while lining up for his second Pfizer dose on Tuesday.
"If our mob's not vaccinated, we're going to lose more," he said.
"The purpose of colonisation was to wipe out Aboriginal people. They sent down flour on the missions - because they made us live on missions - and they put arsenic in it.
"[COVID's] the same thing, it's going to spread, we're going to lose elders, we're going to lose knowledge."
It's going to spread, we're going to lose elders, we're going to lose knowledge.
- Darcy Brown
Mr Brown said he'd seen advertisements from Aboriginal elders in the Northern Territory encouraging people to get vaccinated and speaking the importance of vaccination to save lives.
"They're running ads up there ... about elders speaking about how important it is for them to get vaccinated so they don't bring it in and wipe us out," he said.
"So there is a general consensus that we're scared of our population being wiped out.
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"There's only three per cent of us in the population and we were the first ones here."
Mr Brown said his greatest fear if there was an outbreak on the Border would be the decimation of his people.
He encouraged everyone he knows to be vaccinated.
"My wife's been vaccinated, my children are going to be booked in, my foster son is going to be booked in," he said.
"It's really important. I would encourage everyone for their health to do so.
"Widespread its more a 'yay' than 'nay', but a lot of people are saying they don't like that they're being forced to do it."
Mr Brown said there were also challenges making vaccination bookings.
"Particularly with black fellas, a lot of our older generation, it's hard for them to use online services," he said.
"A lot of it's all booked online and I think for anyone who is an older age you should just ring up or rock up and put your name down, they can say alright we can put you in at this time.
"They're busy, but imagine how [the elders] feel trying to use technology."
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Victoria Ellis
Victoria Ellis grew up on the Border and loves reporting for her home community. She is a University of Wollongong Journalism graduate. In 2018 Victoria was awarded the Bruce Gordon Scholarship for Journalism and completed a 10 week internship with WIN News Illawarra. In 2019 she was awarded The Border Mail's Cameron Thompson Scholarship, where she completed a three week internship, before taking up ongoing employment in 2021.
Victoria Ellis grew up on the Border and loves reporting for her home community. She is a University of Wollongong Journalism graduate. In 2018 Victoria was awarded the Bruce Gordon Scholarship for Journalism and completed a 10 week internship with WIN News Illawarra. In 2019 she was awarded The Border Mail's Cameron Thompson Scholarship, where she completed a three week internship, before taking up ongoing employment in 2021.
