Aboriginal Leader Max Dulumunmun Harrison Dies In Covid Ward 2 Weeks After 'No Jabs' Rally

Prominent Aboriginal leader Max Dulumunmun Harrison, who was an anti-vaxxer, breathed his last in the COVID-19 ward of a hospital in Sydney Saturday.

His family said that the Yuin man from New South Wales' (NSW) South Coast was 85 years old when he died from bronchial asthma and underlying complications, reported The Sydney Morning Herald.

The cultural adviser “on health and cultural-related issues” for the Informed Medical Options Party (IMOParty) was promoted as one of the key speakers at the “Millions March” rally in Sydney’s Hyde Park on Nov. 27. He spoke out against mandatory COVID-19 vaccination at the rally, according to news.com.au. He said that he didn't recognize the place because "they're not a government, they're a corporation posing as a government," reported Mirror. Harrison said that people had "no freedom" due to COVID vaccinations and were "fighting to walk and talk for freedom."

For many years, the author of the 2009 book "My People’s Dreaming" had taught at schools in the Sutherland shire and elsewhere in New South Wales. At the University of Technology Sydney, he recently gave a lecture.

His last rites ceremony was organized Saturday, according to his daughter Cheryl, who called him a very humble person "who gave so much to others." She said that her father was "very family-oriented and leaves behind eight generations of family bloodlines."

IMOParty founder Michael O’Neill described Harrison as a cultural adviser to the movement, which is against mandatory COVID-19 vaccination. He said that he remembered meeting the respected elder and being "drawn by his cheeky humor and his bravery to stand for the truth regardless of its lack of popularity."

On Sunday, he was remembered by many people across Australia as one of the oldest living elders to pass down as many as five generations of Aboriginal lore. The respected elder often interacted with non-Indigenous groups about Aboriginal culture, spirituality, healing, and link to the land.

He had drafted a declaration, which was presented to the NSW Parliament, saying that kangaroos should be treated as a “national treasure." He said that in a history of Aboriginal people before colonization, a traditional healer known as Grandfather Muns had cured him of appendicitis. Muns taught him how to treat illnesses like fever, cold, wounds, burns and dysentery.