Indigenous Australians occcupy Wave Hill Station

1967 Australia: The Gurindji strike – In one of the first and most significant events in which Australian Aboriginal people used mass civil disobedience in order to claim their rights, Gurindji people occupied part of Wave Hill cattle station, Northern Territory. The Gurindji direct action was led by Vincent Lingiari (pictured), the Aboriginal rights activist who later was created a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to the Aboriginal people.

In 1975, the Labor government of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam finally negotiated with Vesteys, the British transnational corporation that operated the land, to give the Gurindji back a portion of their property. The handback took place on August 16, 1975 at Kalkaringi, a landmark in the land rights movement in Australia for Indigenous Australians. The events have been commemorated in the Paul Kelly song, 'From Little Thing Big Things Grow' ...

Categories: indigenous, australia, direct-action