Wave Hill Walk-Off

Question 1

Wave Hill Walk-Off

Answer 1

• March 1966 FAC declared that non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people should be paid equally
• May 1966 northern territory aboriginal stockmen went on strike
  
  • Due to delays in equal pay and poor working conditions
  • British pastoral companies offered more food and better (but not as much) pay
  • Vincent Lingiari rejected the offer
  • They wanted their land back
• By October 1966 the Gurindji people wanted a claim of 1300 km
• In 1975 the Gurindji people won the first land rights claim
• Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours sand into Vincent Lingiari’s hand in a symbolic handover of land rights to the Gurindji people on 16 August 1975.

Question 2

Achievements

Answer 2

• The land was given back to Aboriginal people
• Future generations of Aboriginal people did not have to endure the conditions that the older generations had

Question 3

Impacts

Answer 3

• First time something like that had happened
• Inspired national change in the form of equal wages for Aboriginal workers, as well as a new land rights act
• Public awareness
  
  • The thought process of Aboriginal people around Australia
  • Other Aboriginal people felt empowered to change their own rights
• The first time the Australian government put something to recognize something as land rights
• First-time land rights were put on the government’s agenda or legislation

Question 4

Limitations to success

Answer 4

• Early on, many people, including the government, did not agree with everyone getting equal pay