Gurindji Walk Off: Eight-Year Fight for Land Rights
The Gurindji people of Wave Hill cattle station in Australia's Northern Territory walked off the job in August 1966, initially demanding equal wages with white stockmen. They were being paid the equivalent of a few dollars per week plus rations while working the same jobs as white employees. Under the leadership of Vincent Lingiari, the strike evolved into something far more significant: a claim for the return of their traditional lands, which the pastoral company had been granted without any consultation with or compensation to the Indigenous owners. After nine years of campaigning, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam symbolically handed back a portion of the land in 1975, a moment that catalyzed the Aboriginal land rights movement across Australia.
August 23, 1975
51 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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