The Gurindji Strike
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Gurindji Strike lasted from 1966 to 1975 at Wave Hill cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. For a generation, Gurindji people had been forced to work for basic food and shelter, as well as small amount of cash in some few cases, by the Vestey meat company, which owned their land around Wattie Creek as tenant of the Australian Commonwealth. Led by their spokesman Vincent Lingiari, the workers walked off the job and began their 7 year strike. Offers of somewhat improved conditions were rejected, and the strike quickly became a campaign for the Vestey company to vacate the Gurindji land. In 1975, the Australian Labor Party government of Gough Whitlam finally negotiated with the Vesteys to give the Gurindji back a portion of their land. This was a landmark in the so-called land rights movement in Australia for Australian Aborigines to be given rights to their traditional lands.
This struggle wwas the inspiration behind Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody's popular protest song, "From Little Things Big Things Grow".
External Links
MP Warren Snowdon's Speech to Parliament in honour of Vincen Lingiari (http://www.warrensnowdon.com/speeches/020320.htm)
GreenLeft Weekly article on the history of indigenous labour struggles in Australia (http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/1995/197/197p13.htm)
GreenLeft Weekly transcipt of an oral history of the Wave Hill Station Strike (http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/1996/251/251p15.htm)
ABC interview with Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody (http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/history/Transcripts/s1147120.htm)
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