Alick Jackomos: Greek Hero of the Victorian Aboriginal Community

The Victorian Government recently honored twenty eminent Aboriginal people. One of them was Merle Jackomos, who was honored for providing service to the Yorta Yorta nation with a strong sense of social justice. Merle Jackomos was the wife of the Greek hero of the Victorian Aboriginal Community, Alick Jackomos.

The book ‘A man of all tribes’ explores the life of Alick Jackomos. Alick Jackomos was the son of Greek migrant parents, born in Collingwood, who grew up during the Great Depression. His is a remarkable life that recaptures stories of diverse communities and ways of life now vanished from sight.

From an adverturous boyhood growing up Greek in Melbourne, Jackomos survived war service, and became a travelling tent wrestler with Jimmy Sharman, whose boxing troupe was known throughout Australia. These shows relied heavily on Aboriginal boxers and audiences, and Jackomos actively crossed cultural boundaries and sought to associate with Aboriginal people when most of the population chose to shun them.

There are few stories concerning non-Aboriginal people who crossed over into the Aboriginal world as did Alick Jackomos. He became Doug Nicholls’ apprentice in Aboriginal welfare work and activism for Aboriginal rights. His life is set in the context of evolving Aboriginal activism, yet there were moments of controversy, as he was a non-Aboriginal man with an Aboriginal family, living and moving in an Aboriginal world and working for Aboriginal causes.

All the while this man of little education collected a huge and remarkable photographic archive of Aboriginal Victorians and compiled over a thousand intricate genealogies.

Alick Jackomos was universally acknowledged as a person of rare humanity.