Australia’s oldest Aboriginal man, Ngarla elder Stephen Stewart, has lived a ‘wild’, remarkable life

Karajarri Nyangumarta man Stephen Stewart has defied all the odds to keep his culture alive for more than a century.

Warning: Readers are advised that this article contains the name of an Indigenous person who has died.

The life expectancy for Indigenous men is 71.6 years of age, but Mr Stewart may be as old as 109.

That makes him the oldest Aboriginal man still alive in West Australia’s Pilbara region, if not the entire country.

“I am the last one,” Mr Stewart said.

“All my elders are finished.”

To this day the Ngarla elder spends four months of the year on the road as a senior lore-man.

“It’s a big job, very hard too,” Mr Stewart said.

Before records…