Sixty years ago, workers at the Wave Hill cattle station in the Northern Territory took a stand against discrimination and poor working conditions and walked off the job in protest. A defining moment for Australia's Indigenous land rights, the Wave Hill walk off lead the way for the Aboriginal Land Rights Act of1976 and its significance is still celebrated today.
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TRANSCRIPT
60 years ago, 200 Gurindji, Mudburra and Warlpiri people walked off a remote cattle station in the Northern Territory.
Taking a stand against discrimination and poor working conditions, the walk-off now known as the Wave Hill walk-off became a defining moment for Indigenous land rights in Australia.
At the time, Aboriginal workers in the Northern Territory were paid far less than their European counterparts, sometimes half, sometimes nothing at all.
Wave Hill station was owned by British Lord Samuel Vestey.
"Well you must remember that we are the tenants of the land and the government owns the land, its Commonwealth land."
Vincent Lingiari, who led the workers on strike, was a stockman on the station.
"They said hey you're stealing another man's country. And I said well what was it before Lord Vestey born and I born? Everything was Blakfella country."
Commencing the walk-off in 1966, the workers set up a new camp 20 kilometres away at Daguragu in 1967.
With a petition for a lease over the land knocked back by the Governor General, hope for action on land rights was again ignited in 1972 when former Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam won government.
The next year, the Wave Hill lease was split in two, with the Gurindji gaining one.
When the strike finally came to an end in 1975, Gough Whitlam famously poured a handful of sand through Vincent Lingiari's hands.
"I solemnly hand to you these deeds as proof in Australian law that these lands belong to the Gurindji people."
Mervyn Bishop, Australia's pioneering Indigenous press photographer, took one of the most famous photographs in Australian history.
He spoke to NITV about the process of getting the shot.
"And we both sort of went, doesn't look real good. So how about when they finish speaking we take them outside in the bright sunlight and do it again? The officialdom stopped and I said, "Mr. Whitlam, may we do this again outside in the nice bright sunlight? It'd look better. 'Oh, oh, oh! Very well.' I said, just one moment. Would you mind standing there, waiting there? I'll go and get Uncle Vincent Lingiari. Just a moment. Just a moment. Focused up. Focused up. Heard a flash, flash on the camera to fill the shadows, and took about four pictures."
The Wave Hill walk-off helped lead to the landmark 1976 Aboriginal Land Rights Act in the Northern Territory, Australia's first ever piece of land rights legislation.
Mr Bishop says he's humbled to have captured such a moment in history.
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There are other famous pictures around in the world created before me, and still people look to them and and they give a bit of a background of the history of that particular image, whether it's war pictures and things that happened over the years. Well, it's become a certainly an icon of imagery. I feel honored mostly and humbled because it's the way what I've done appeals to them."
Marking the 60th anniversary of the walk-off, a pilgrimage of hundreds has arrived at Kalkarindji to commemorate the milestone with three days of music, sport and cultural celebration.
Speaking to NITV, those attending the march say it's an important time to reconnect and remember those who walked before.
"It means coming back and seeing family, which is always really important, and just thinking about all the people who were on that march and what they did for the rest of us. So it's for me, it's like a coming home because I'm based elsewhere, but I love seeing family up here, so it's really good."
