What was vincent lingiari famous for

Rather than the long wait for film to be mailed off, developed and delivered, a local amateur photographer, Vic King, showed Bishop how to develop photographs in his makeshift home darkroom. He saved up enough money from lawn mowing to buy his own 35mm camera, a Japanese Acon, and as he improved, his family began hosting slide nights in their backyard.

Cousins, Ralph and Jim, Brewarrina Like the one of former prime minister Gough Whitlam pouring soil into the hands of traditional owner Vincent Lingiari at the Gurindji handback ceremony at Dagaragu Wattie Creek in the Northern Territory. It takes pride of place in Old Parliament House.

This picture was actually a re-enactment, explains Bishop, who was then working as a photographer for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. His parents paid for it with the help from the Aborigines Welfare Board, and a fund some Herald subeditors had set up to help Indigenous education.

Bishop's photograph "Life and death dash". This delay in implementing the decision was viewed as being unsatisfactory and Dexter Daniels, an Aboriginal organiser employed by the North Australian Workers Union, went calling on cattle station workers to go on strike.

This is not the first time strikes had taken place but previously they had little effect. Gurindji man, Sandy Moray, had been saying for years that they should be running their own cattle stations on their land. Vincent Lingiari, by now a Gurindji elder and head stockman at Wave Hill, agreed that getting their land back was the long-term aim but after meeting with Daniels and others felt they should go on strike for more wages and better conditions.

This way they would have support of members of the union movement with links to the Communist Party of Australia. Brian Manning, an activist and trade unionist in support of the struggle by Aboriginals, describes what happened next:. He told them that proper wages had been refused so he had said they were walking off.

There was no dissention. The stockmen agreed they should walk off. The people collected their belongings and quietly walked away from Wave Hill Station to the dry bed of the Victoria River near the Police Station and Welfare settlement about ten miles away.

Lingiari refused; they were not going back to the appalling conditions. Brian Manning, with others, made many trips in his Bedford truck over the rough roads from Darwin bringing supplies. But it would require support from unionists and others around Australia if the strike was to continue. In this regard the Sydney-based author and journalist Frank Hardy was able to achieve national coverage of the strike.

He would soon be on his way to the Northern Territory to see for himself what was happening. These meetings with the Gurindjis would later be described in his book, The Unlucky Australians. With the wet season approaching the Gurindjis had to move from the dry river bed to near the Police Station and Welfare Branch. In March , Lingiari led his people on an audacious move to create a new settlement at Wattie Creek called Daguragu about 13km away on land leased to the Vesteys.

They were now illegal squatters on what was once their own land. In order to gain support from unionists on the southern states, Guringji people — including Lingiari — toured the country. Japanese researcher Minoru Horari, who later spent time living with the Gurindji people, explains their strategy:. The Gurindji people knew that unionists were keen about the issue of equal wages. This was the start of a protracted battle for land rights that would go on for another eight years and more.

Without the financial, material and political support of the white population in the southern states, driven initially by the Communist Party and later by the Australian Labor Party, trade unions and student bodies, the strike would have failed. From around the government of the day commenced reforms. Liberal M. Wentworth, was particularly keen to support the Gurindji claims but was stymied by members from the Country Party coalition. Real change came about when Gough Whitlam became Prime Minister in with a platform to promote Aboriginal land rights.

Eventually the existing Wave Hill lease by the Vesteys was surrendered and two new leases issued: one for Vesteys and the other, a 3, square kilometer lease, was for the Murramulla Gurindji Company.

Vincent Lingiari, I solemnly hand to you these deeds as proof in Australian law that these lands belong to the Gurindji people, and I put into your hands part of the earth as a sign that this land will be the possession of you and your children forever.

In the Daguragu leasehold was converted to freehold title. It was finally their own land again. On 5 November their classic ballad was sung at the Sydney memorial service for Gough Whitlam who had died on 21 October , aged He had principles. It was not just about the money. The poor pay they received was simply one example of ongoing injustice. We just want our land back.

Jeff McMullen, the Australian journalist, author and television presenter was asked by the Gurindji elders to present the Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture for Both his mother and his father, also Vincent Lingiari, were employed on the sq.

Called Tommy Vincent by his employers, he received no formal education. Aged about 12 he was absorbed into the station work at the stock camps, where cattle from the 80, herd were mustered, branded and drafted into mobs of bullocks to be driven to meatworks at Port Darwin. Although Lingiari became a head stockman at Wave Hill, he initially received no cash payment. At the same time, he was becoming a highly respected Gurindji 'law boss'. On 23 August , tired of the Aborigines being 'treated like dogs' in their own country, Lingiari led two hundred of his people, employees of Wave Hill station, with their families, in a 'walk-off'.

The group camped in the bed of the Victoria River and later moved to Daguragu, known to non-Aborigines as Wattie Creek. The Gurindji strike was to last nine years, the longest in Australian history. Influenced by Daniels and the film actor Robert Tudawali both members of the Northern Territory Council for Aboriginal Rights , and by the writer Frank Hardy, Lingiari was happy to add his voice to the emerging cause of 'land rights'.

In April the Gurindji sent a petition to the governor-general, R. Lord Casey, asking that their tribal land be returned to them so that they could establish their own cattle station.