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Impact Of The Gurindji Strike

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The Gurindji Strike or Wave Hill 'Walk off' was a fundamental event in the Australian Aboriginal struggle for rights. The Gurindji's were faced with low wages and poor conditions on the cattle station which sparked the start of the protest but soon after the focus shifted to the land rights of the Gurindji people (ABC net, 2014). On the 23rd of August 1966, 200 Gurindji stockmen, house servants and their families went on strike on the Wave Hill cattle station in Kalkarindji in the Northern Territory. This essay will discuss what led up to this event and its goals, why was this seen as a 'landmark' event and what the ongoing impacts are from the event. The Gurindji strike showcases the true struggle for the proper rights that the Australian …show more content…

“Wave Hill was a major step on the long road towards equality between settlers and indigenous Australians,” says Professor Deborah Rose, an anthropologist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney (Dineley, 2013). This situation of land theft by the white settlers was, and still is to this day, a very prominent issue and unfortunately many did not have the same resolution as the Gurindji strike. This strike was seen as "the first claim for traditional Aboriginal land in Australia (Korff, Jens. 2014)." A very giant step forward and the beginning of Aboriginal land rights occurred on August 16, 1975, five years after the start of the Gurindji strike, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in the Labor party handed over the entitled land to the Gurindji people. This event carved the path for the Northern Territory land rights act of 1975 and in the same year the Gurindji people were able to purchase the pastoral lease for the Gurindji land and the developing in to the Gurindji people gaining the free hold title to the waterhole on Wattie Creek in 1986, which is where the Gurindji people stayed after leaving the cattle station during the strike in 1966. This moment was seen as a pivotal point in Aboriginal History as Gough Whitlam poured soil from the Gurindji land into the palm of Aboriginal elder Vincent Lingiari at the ceremony of purchasing the pastoral lease. In May 2004, Vincent Linguari the leader during the initial strike at the Cattle Station was memorialised as part of the reconciliation place in Canberra (Korff, Jens. 2014) The Wave Hill Walk off was different from previous Aboriginal strikes, it was the first to receive strong support from the trade unions and other organisations around Australia and the attraction of the media and involvement of the author Frank Hardy gave the Gurindji’s grievances more of a wider scale audience

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Vincent Lingiari and the wave hill strike is another significant person and event in the aboriginal civil rights movement becoming a national iconic figure representing the struggles of Aboriginals having their land recognised. Vincent Lingiari was an aboriginal man part of the Gurindji people who worked in the Wave-Hill cattle-farm in the Northern Territory. The working and living conditions there were very poor for the Aboriginals and were paid much less than non-aboriginals were. On 23 August 1966 tired of the poor treatment, Lingiari decided to go on strike along with 200 other Gurindji people, the strike lasted nine years, the longest in Australian history. Later on The Gurindji people did not care about better wages anymore and they

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The station’s land encompassed Gurindji country, and the Gurindji people were taken on as cheap workers. In the 1960s, conditions became poor for Aboriginal workers. They received under minimal wages, had poor working and living conditions and disrespectful treatment. Vincent Lingiari, who was an Aboriginal rights activist, thought it was the time to make a change.

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this event has the support of the liberal and labour parties as well as the prime minister Whitlam who had helped approved the land rights act, this was also a step into having trust between both parties. After Prime Minister Whitlam was put into power, he promised to push for Aboriginal land rights, the Australian government bought privately owned land to give back to the Aboriginals since the act had been introduced, and almost 50% of the northern territory was returned to the ATSI people. The year 1975 marked a great historical year in Australia as it was the year the Prime minister poured soil into indigenous Australians' hands to symbolise their victory in claiming Australia as their

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The Wave Hill Walk Off, also referred to as The Gurindji Strike was a strike by approximately 200 Gurindji Aboriginals in August 1966 at Wave Hill cattle station in Kalkarindji, Northern Territory. The Gurindji tribe’s traditional land enveloped approximately 3,250 km² of the Northern Territory. The first Europeans arrived in Gurindji in the 1850s, when explorer Augustus Gregory crossed into their territory. Numerous other early settlers traversed the area over the following years until the 1880s, when large pastoral operations were established. After years of gross neglect, humiliation and distinct unfair conditions provided to the aboriginal workers in comparison to the Anglo-Saxon workers, the walk off commenced in August 1966 as a form of protest.

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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.

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Lingiari was part of the wave hill cattle station in 1965, working for Lord Vestey. The pay for the aboriginal people on the land was shocking, and their food rations were poor. Of course, the Gurindji people were not happy and went on strike. Jens Korff, who has studied aboriginal people since 1999, from the national library of Australia states that at first this strike was for the salary to be raised to $25 a week, but soon grew into a larger

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