Gurindji elder Billy Bunter Jampijinpa, with grandson Selwyn, at the site
where he and other stockmen camped before they walked off Wave Hill cattle
station on August 23, 1966.
Lindsay Murdoch, DarwinJuly
17, 2006
BILLY Bunter Jampijinpa walked off Wave Hill cattle station 40 years ago but
he remembers the historic event as if it were yesterday.
"It was the day we walked out of the darkness into the light," he says.
Mr Jampijinpa is one of the few Aboriginal stockmen still alive who walked
off the Lord Vesty-owned station on August 23, 1966, in what turned out to be
the beginning of Australia's land rights movement.
As his Gurindji people and other clans in the remote communities of
Kalkaringi and Daguragu, 800 kilometres south of Darwin, prepare to commemorate
and celebrate the 40th anniversary at a two-day festival, Mr Jampijinpa, now 56,
and the other surviving stockmen want to tell their stories so they will never
be forgotten.
"We were treated like dogs," he says. "We were lucky to get paid the 50 quid
a month we were due, and we lived in humpies you had to crawl in and out of on
your knees. There was no running water, the food was bad — just flour, tea,
sugar and bits of beef like the head or feet of a bullock."
Another survivor, Mick (Hoppy) Rangiari, says everyone is welcome at the
Freedom Festival on August 18 and 19.
"A lot of people been passed away," he says. "I been one bloke just left and
I start to think that a lot of people need to get that story. We will give them
that story."
Clan elders are disappointed that federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal
Brough has declined their invitation to attend the festival, which they regard
as the most important event held on their land since the historic walk-off.
But former prime minister Gough Whitlam, who turned 90 last week and is too
frail to travel, will deliver a speech via video to the people who fondly call
him Jungarni, or "that big man".
On August 16, 1975, Mr Whitlam poured a handful of soil from the Daguragu
land into the outstretched palm of Vincent Lingiari, in a gesture signifying the
handing back of 3236 square kilometres of ancestral land, the final chapter in
the Gurindjis nine-year fight.
Mr Lingiari, the leader of the walk-off who died in 1988, is not being
forgotten during the festival, which has the backing of the Northern Territory
Government.
A commemorative grave will be built at the site where he is buried, which is
now marked only by a star picket.
Daguragu Council chief executive officer Mike Freeman says the festival also
aims to provide work, opportunities and activities for the 700 or so indigenous
people living in the area.
"We plan to develop tourism and the community is talking about opening up
spectacular areas that have never been open before, like gorges with amazing
rock art," he says.
The Australian National Heritage Council has approved an application for
heritage listing of the 18-kilometre route used by the 600 Aboriginal stockmen
and their families to walk off Wave Hill station. The application is now with
federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell.
Mr Jampijinpa remembers those who made the walk: "Not only stockmen but young
people, old people all carrying their swags, billy cans, tucker on their backs,
with the babies piled on top — 11 miles we walked."
The festival will include cultural events and performances by at least eight
indigenous bands. The NT Administrator, singer Ted Egan, says that when Vincent
Lingiari led the walk-off he put the words "land rights" into the Australian
vernacular.
"When the definitive history of Australia is written, there will be many
prime ministers who won't rate a single line but the name Vincent Lingiari will
be there," Mr Egan says.
back