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Long Term Effects Of The Gurindji Walked Off To Aboriginal Land Rights

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The Gurindji Walk Off to Aboriginal land rights was impacted historically, significantly, socially and politically. In 1966 the Gurindji people walked off Lord Vestey’s Wave Hill cattle station to protest against poor wages and living conditions. Instead of accepting these circumstances, they made the decision to walk off the station to a nearby creek where they set up a camp. This strike also sought the return of the Gurindji’s ancestral lands, and was the first such case recognised by Australian law. The effect of the Gurindji Walk Off can be seen through its causes of unfair pay and working conditions and land rights and as well as the events that occurred in 1975 and their long term impacts.
The immediate cause of the strike was the rejection …show more content…

In 1975 the Prime Minister Gough Whitlam gave Vincent Lingiari a handful of soil to represent the restoration of Gurindji land to its rightful owners. Nine years previously, Vincent Lingiari had led the Gurindji people in a strike since they had walked off the Wave Hill Cattle station. Their 1966 strike action was one of the first major events of the land rights campaign and now nine years later they had been presented with their wish of control and ownership of their land. Also in 1975, the Racial Discrimination Act was passed by the Federal government. This was Australia's first instance of human rights legislation and was part of the recognition of the new multi-cultural society that Gough Whitlam wanted to disseminate. Australia had signed up to the International Covenant on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1966, but the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 was the first time that anti-discrimination legislation was laid down in the Federal parliament. The legislation meant that any previous discriminatory laws were automatically overturned and that that no restrictions, exclusions or distinctions could be made in Australian society on the basis of race, colour, nationality or descent. Whitlam saw it as a victory over bigotry and prejudice, and not just solely aimed at improving the lives of the Indigenous peoples. Many people also saw the events of 1975 as another milestone on the road towards equality for the Aboriginal

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