Wayne Bergmann is a proud Nyikina man from the Kimberley region of WA. The title of this memoir came from the co-author’s interview when Wayne warned Madelaine of the dangers in being involved with Wayne’s affairs. Needless to say, she wasn’t concerned, and Wayne wasn’t shot. His life has been a rollercoaster ride, however. Some People Want to Shoot Me is his family history along with a political history of interactions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in the remote north-west.
It begins with his great-great-grandmother and the first encounters with white people in Nyikina country, and the ‘bruising impacts of colonisation’. Wayne struggled with literacy until early adulthood – making his later law degree all the more laudable. He always remarked that he was a boilermaker first. Bergmann was employed by Mangkaja Arts, where he met Christine, who became the catalyst for his further education and his wife.
He was a sponge for learning, trying to be both ‘a strong cultural man and a participant in the modern economy’. His greatest contribution to his people is also the source of its divide. He became head of the Kimberley Lands Council and the meat in the sandwich between Traditional Owners, Woodside Petroleum and the WA Government. The proposed gas plant on the Kimberley coast was seen either as vandalism or an opportunity by Traditional Owners. Unknown to the community was the government’s power of compulsory acquisition – Wayne could only attempt to get the best deal.
His continued commitment to the Kimberleys is indefatigable, as there will always be another Woodside or Rio Tinto.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT WAYNE BERGMANN
Wayne Bergmann is an Indigenous leader from the Kimberley region. He is recognised as one of Australia’s leading advocates for Indigenous self-determination through economic empowerment and opportunity, specialising in native title and mining negotiations, capital and business structuring.
Bergmann is a Nyikina man, boilermaker-welder, lawyer and entrepreneur. He has served as Executive Director of Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre, as well as CEO of the Kimberley Land Council and KRED Enterprises Charitable Foundation. Bergmann was proud to have chaired the Expert Indigenous Working Group for the Coalition of Australian Government investigation into Indigenous Land Administration and Use.
He is currently Managing Director of Leedal Foundation, an Indigenous enterprise that operates hotels, pubs, a supermarket and a mechanic vehicle servicing business. He serves as Executive Chairman of National Indigenous Times, Australia’s largest independent media news business; and is a Professor of Practice at the UNSW Business School of Management and Governance.
ABOUT MADELAINE DICKIE
Madelaine Dickie loves to write, loves to surf and loves fishing with her hundred-pound handline. In the last 12 years she’s wandered and worked in Jakarta, Broome, Wyndham, Tokyo, Exmouth and Arnhem Land.
In 2022, she took off on an eight-month surf drift through Mexico with her husband and eighteen-month-old son. They had a pistachio-coloured Nissan. The car’s transmission blew just shy of a mountain pass boobytrapped with bandits. A week later it caught fire at a border crossing.
When Madelaine takes a break from living dangerously you can find her at the desk, writing. Her debut novel Troppo won the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award and was shortlisted in the Dobbie Literary Awards and for a Barbara Jefferis Award.
Her second novel Red Can Origami was written with the assistance of an Asialink Arts Residency at Youkobo Art Space in Japan. She’s won a Prime Minister’s Asia Australia Endeavour Award, an Illawarra Mercury Journalism Prize and has twice been shortlisted in the Western Australian Premier’s Literary Awards. In addition to writing novels and non-fiction,
Madelaine has served as editor in chief of National Indigenous Times and spent over 10 years working for Traditional Owner-led organisations as a graphic designer and media officer. She’s currently a Director of The Skill Engineer, a bold social enterprise that’s creating purposeful futures for young people.
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