Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening because I want to put on record the activities that happened at Kalkarindji on 18 and 19 August. So very few opportunities arise in these chambers to champion some of the more successful activities and operations that occur in Indigenous communities, and this weekend was such a terrific weekend that I think it should not go unnoticed. People may not be aware, but 18 and 19 August was the 40th anniversary of the Gurindji Freedom Day celebrations at Kalkarindji, in the Northern Territory. That marks one of the most significant events in our history. It is also known as the Gurindji Wave Hill Walk-Off and marks a milestone—in fact, probably the first of many milestones—in the battle for the recognition of Aboriginal people’s rights to their land and to fair wages and conditions.

The weekend this year, I found, was especially poignant, particularly in the larger context of two developments under the Howard government in the last 12 months: the rolling back of workers’ rights under the industrial relations changes this year with the introduction of Work Choices and, in the days preceding the walk-off commemorations, the federal government’s shamefully ramming through this parliament the changes to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act, which will undermine traditional landowners’ rights over their land.

I note that in recent days the attack has continued, with Minister Brough’s announcement yet again on his decision to try and revoke the permit system. It was unfortunate and notable that neither of my Northern Territory federal government member counterparts were present at Kalkarindji. Nor in fact was anyone from the federal government game enough to actually turn up at Kalkarindji and defend why both of these changes have occurred in the last 12 months to Indigenous people. But if anyone from the CLP or the coalition had bothered to turn up, they would have appreciated the depth of feeling and the sense of history attached to the walk-off.

The Wave Hill cattle station is on the traditional country of the Gurindji people of the Northern Territory. It is about 700 kilometres south of Darwin, in the upper reaches of the mighty Victoria River. The Gurindji first met Europeans when the explorer Gregory passed through their land in the 1850s. Pastoral activities began moving into the area in the 1880s and the Wave Hill Station began in 1883. It became part of the Vesteys cattle empire in 1914 and, like the cattle industry throughout Australia, in the early days it relied on Aboriginal labour, including the stockmen and women working in a range of jobs about the homesteads.

Some stations were better and some worse than others in attributing a value to the contribution of Aboriginal workers and in recognising the traditional links to the land. Many stations had been set up during violent frontier confrontations that persisted for many years. Despite this, many of the old Aboriginal stockmen look back at the heyday of the larger cattle stations nostalgically as a time when their skills and knowledge were an integral part of the economy. In meeting those old men again and spending time with them down at the river bed at the barbecue and the picnic on the Friday, as I have done now for about the fourth year in a row, it is fantastic to just listen to the stories and the pride that they have in the contributions they made to the Northern Territory at that time.

However, the pride that these old men had in their work was not necessarily reciprocated. Nor was their value recognised, nor their aspirations to have their traditional ownership of the land and the grounding of their culture in it recognised under law. Protests about conditions and pay on the Vestey stations had continued for many years and were supported by the North Australian Workers Union and others. Billy Bunter Jampijinpa, who took part in the walk-off, said:

We were treated just like dogs. We were lucky to get paid the 50 quid a month we were due, and we lived in tin humpies you had to crawl in and out on your knees. There was no running water. The food was bad—just flour, tea, sugar and bits of beef like the head or feet of a bullock. The Vesteys mob were hard men. They didn’t care about blackfellas.

By 23 August 1966, the Gurindji, Mudbura and Warlpiri families working at Wave Hill Station had had enough. Vincent Lingiari led the walk-off of Aboriginal workers and their families along with men such as Billy Bunter, Mick Rangiari and Michael George. They went first to Gordy Creek Waterhole, then to a place down by the Victoria River and later to Wattie Creek, or Daguragu, 30 kilometres from the station.

The strike for better wages and conditions grew into a demand for recognition of their rights to their land. In 1967, the Gurindji petitioned the Governor-General, claiming 1,295 square kilometres of land near Wave Hill to set up their own cattle station, but the claim was rejected. It was a struggle through the sixties and the seventies that paralleled the fight of many indigenous people worldwide for their rights and decolonisation.

The Gurindji won support from groups across Australia including churches and unions—the North Australian Workers Union and the forerunner of the Maritime Union, the Waterside Workers Federation, whose Darwin organiser, Brian Manning, was intimately involved in supporting the Gurindji’s struggle. In fact, I think Brian to this very day tells a story of how he knew these people had decided to take action and had walked off the Vestey station down to the creek, and he had heard that they had been there for two or three days without food. So he gathered up the waterside workers union, put a truckload of food together, travelled down to them and took the food to them. Think about that: 40 years ago, apparently it took him many days to get there. I understand that, to this very day, that truck sits in Brian Manning’s backyard, and there are quite a few of us who are trying to organise to have it saved and put somewhere as a museum piece. But that is the kind of commitment that Brian Manning had to the workers of the Northern Territory. Author and journalist Frank Hardy did much to promote the cause nationally.

The visits of Lingiari and others of the old men to Melbourne and Sydney to lobby for their cause had a profound effect. They brought home to mainstream assimilationist Australia that Aboriginal people wanted a living future, on their own terms, on their traditional lands. It was a message that resonated with the Labor Party and of course with the federal opposition leader, Gough Whitlam.

In government, Gough Whitlam granted the Gurindji a lease over part of their traditional lands. Very significantly, on 16 August 1975, he travelled to visit the Gurindji people to effect the handover. It was great on the day. Gough Whitlam provided a video telecast, and the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs at the time was also present. When Gough Whitlam addressed the Gurindji back in 1975, he said this:

On this great day, I, Prime Minister of Australia, speak to you on behalf of all Australian people—all those who honour and love this land we live in. For them I want to say to you ... I want this to acknowledge that we Australians have still much to do to redress the injustice and oppression that has for so long been the lot of Black Australians. Vincent Lingiari, I solemnly hand to you these deeds as proof, in Australian law, that these lands belong to the Gurindji people and I put into your hands part of the earth itself as a sign that this land will be the possession of you and your children forever.

Of course, we all know and can all picture right now, as I speak, that magnificent photo of Gough Whitlam pouring those red sands into the hands of Vincent Lingiari. In simple and profound words to Gough Whitlam in response at that handover ceremony in 1975, Vincent Lingiari said this:

We want to live in a better way together, Aboriginals and white men. Let us not fight over anything. Let us be mates ...

My, how time has changed.

In closing, I want to thank all the people who were so wonderfully involved in such a great weekend, in particular, the council at Kalkarindji—Susan Cebu, Barry Wardle, Patrick Jimmy, Gus George, Michael Paddy, Jonathan Mick, Roslyn Frith, James Walker and Justin Paddy—and I particularly want to mention Maurie Ryan, who was the MC and the main coordinator for the day. What a great job he did. Thanks go to Mike Freeman and Julie Cathcart, to the Northern Land Council and Central Land Council, to the Northern Territory government and of course to the troops of NORFORCE, who looked after thousands of people for what was a magnificent weekend. (Time expired)