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Ray Raiwala or Raiwalla (c. 1907 - 21 February 1965) was an Aboriginal leader and soldier from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. He was a Yolngu man, from the Miltjingi (Mildjingi/Malijinga) clan, and he was born in the Glyde River area.
In 1929 he was charged with murder and sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. He was later released after it was recognised that he had the right to practice Aboriginal customary law, this led to his release in 1934. In the 1930s he worked with anthropologist Donald Thomson and then, in World War II joined the Northern Territory Special Reconnaissance Unit where he served with Thomson.
In 1927 Raiwala was again recorded at being at the Milingimbi Mission when he witnessed the missionary Thomas Theodor Webb being assaulted and James Robertson, the lay pastor, being speared. Because of this he was called as a crown witness to the trial of the men who were charged for this crime; they were each found guilty and sentenced to three years in jail.
Following is release from jail Raiwala returned to Milingimbi and soon after married Mary Burramullagalli, likely through the church there, and, within eight years, he married twice more through tribal marriage.
Thomson would then return in June 1936 and Raiwala (and one of his wives) was waiting for him in Darwin and together they visited numerous communities in western Arnhem Land. As a part of this trip they also investigated killings which had taken place in the area; these are often referred to as the Caledon Bay crisis. After this trip Thomson remained with Raiwala, mostly on his country on the Arafura Swamp and based from Darby Creek (Katji), from October 1936 to July 1937 and Raiwala taught him about his way of life and how to hunt Magpie goose using a special type of canoe. Thomson recorded from Raiwala that the female bird was called miyalk and the male tirnanyu and the details of their life cycle there.
Raiwala was referred to as a corporal but this title was never formally given to him and he was formally enlisted as a private. He, like the other men, was trained in guerrilla fighting, reconnaissance and scouting but, unlike them, and as an enlisted soldier he was the only one to be issued with a rifle. He then led patrols at Blue Mud Bay and Trial Bay (Gurka’wuy) before being discharged from the army on 7 May 1943 when the unit closed.
Earlier in 1943 Raiwala had been offered a discharge after, during a visit to Townsville to visit his family, he found that one of his wives and two of his children had been taken from there to somewhere inland. This discharge was offered in order to give him an opportunity to search for his family but he insisted in remaining to complete his role.
Reflecting on his time in the unit Thomson said:
Notably he was paid for his war time service and, in 1963, he applied and was awarded a war medal and his Returned from Active Service Badge.
In 1963 he and his first wife, Mary Burramullagalli, were living at the Bagot Community in Darwin and were given full citizenship status meaning that they were no longer considered wards of the state as other Aboriginal people were.
Raiwala died on 21 February 1965 in Darwin.
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