Elder Wayne Atkinson says he gets emotional when talking about his journey from the Mooroopna riverbanks in rural Victoria to a life of activism, advocating for Indigenous rights and academia.

The proud Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung man has penned a book, Beyond the Meeting of the Waters: A Yorta Yorta Life Story, with his wife, Cathy Guinness.

The book explores Dr Atkinson's profound human understanding of the power of the voice, the spear of the pen, and the potential of collective organisation.

"Living on the river like our ancestors have done for many thousands of years was a wonderful experience," Dr Atkinson told National Indigenous Times.

"And while we were living on the outskirts of the town, we built a powerful community, you know, with values of sharing and caring, looking after each other and those kinds of things.

"And I learnt so much, it helped to ground my Aboriginality as a Yorta Yorta kid."

Dr Atkinson said possessing a strong sense of identity motivated him to pursue higher learning and dedicate a lifetime to activism aimed at empowering his people.

The former lecturer at the University of Melbourne specialised in Yorta Yorta culture, land rights struggles, and the development of the Oncountry Learning concept.

He played a pivotal role in the Yorta Yorta Native Title land claim and was a commissioner with the Yoorrook Justice Commission.

"It took almost 20 years, but the Yorta Yorta people pulled on and finally got a national park, which was like the heartland of the Yorta Yorta country," he said.

"I use what's called a chipping away philosophy.

"You know, there's the constant chipping away, and you knock some big chips off along the way, and the big chips inspire you on."

Ms Guinness said she co-authored the book because she wanted to give people an understanding of what it is to be a Yorta Yorta person.

She is also the author of Rubber Justice, which documents her grandfather's humanitarian work in the Congo, and A Haunting Silence, which aims to uncover the truth about her great-grandfather, a landowner in Tasmania during the Black War.

"I thought the book would help people understand because we're in Victoria, where most people haven't met a Koori person," she said.

"So we started the account back on country in Dreamtime and moved forward through the massacres, the mission days, the reserves, the protection days.

"And then we've moved forward into Wayne's own story.

"It's a family story, it's Wayne's story, and it's a whole community story."

Dr Atkinson believed it was essential to include Ms Guinness' experiences as a non-Indigenous perspective, since she accompanied him on much of this journey.

The pair travelled around Ireland, where Ms Guinness has connections to the Guinness family line.

The couple fell in love with the Emerald Isle and got a deeper understanding of British colonialism.

"Going to Ireland and recognising the link between Irish colonial history and Aboriginal history was an incredible experience," Ms Guinness said.

"There's definitely some deep and painful parallels there for sure."

In the book, Dr Atkinson discussed the unpleasant incident when right-wing political journalist Andrew Bolt wrote articles in 2009 which suggested light-skinned people identifying as Aboriginal did so for personal advantage.

The stories were headlined "It's so hip to be black" and "White fellas in the black".

Nine First Nations leaders, including Dr Atkinson, sued Mr Bolt in the Federal Court, claiming he breached the Racial Discrimination Act.

Justice Mordecai Bromberg found Bolt had breached the Act because the articles were not written in good faith and contained factual errors.

"When that type of journalist challenges your Aboriginality that you're so proud of and doesn't take any responsibility for what they say or the people they hurt, it does hurt," Dr Atkinson said.

"In the spirit of Yorta Yorta reconciliation, I invited him to come onto country, sit down, and have a yarn with our people—hear the story from our people rather than from the ivory tower he was sitting in.

"But he refused to come and apologise."

Ms Guinness hopes readers get a deeper understanding of what it means to be Aboriginal.

"Not only what it means to be Aboriginal, but Yorta Yorta, she said.

"I think a new understanding of the whole history."