Poor Bugger Me, Gurindji

August 20, 2016 3:47 AM

[This post includes links to names, images and audio of Aboriginal Australians who have died.] It is fifty years this week since the start of the Wave Hill Walkoff of 1966-1975, which led to the first victory of the land-rights movement in Australia. Indigenous workers went on strike at the Vestey mega-station in Australia's Northern Territory. Walking off the job and sitting down in Daruragu country, the Gurindji people began a nine-year campaign to regain control of their land. To mark the occasion, I give you Gurindji Blues, recorded during that struggle in 1971 by Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Vincent Lingiari and written by Ted Egan. I have long lost my copy of this single and wanted to hear it again tonight. Thanks internet!

Bonus track: the 1991 hit by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody: From Little Things Big Things Grow.

posted by valetta (14 comments total)

Build you house with 'lectricity.

Many thanks!
posted by Autumn Leaf at 4:16 AM on August 20, 2016

thanks so much for this.
posted by allthinky at 4:37 AM on August 20, 2016

Thank you valetta.

If it's not trite being said here...I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land upon which everyone in Australia stands. I'd like to pay respects to Elders past, present, and future.

I'm standing on Gadigal land in the Eora nation which was ruthlessly and violently stolen from the original inhabitants.

People who lived here in perfect environmental harmony with the native animals and plants for over 40 thousand years. People who now have the highest suicide rate in detention in the world. And people who have a 20 year lower life expectancy gap than white people in the same country. People who are manifestly disproportionately detained more, and incarcerated, compared to any other group.
posted by taff at 5:39 AM on August 20, 2016 [11 favorites]

"On this great day, I, Prime Minister of Australia, speak to you on behalf of all Australian people – all those who honour and love this land we live in. For them I want to say to you: I want this to acknowledge that we Australians have still much to do to redress the injustice and oppression that has for so long been the lot of Black Australians."
"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 itself as a sign that this land will be the possession of you and your children forever."

And indeed, we still have much to do.
posted by girlgenius at 5:46 AM on August 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Thanks valetta.
The accounts of massacres and murders in the backstory of Wave Hill walkoffs are horrific. We hear so little about this part of Australian history and it's in living memory. What's wrong with this country?
posted by 8k at 7:33 AM on August 20, 2016

From the keyboard of a tribal person in the US, thanks for this post.
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:45 AM on August 20, 2016 [4 favorites]

Thank you valetta, and to follow taff's example: I stand on Wurundjeri land, part of the Kulin nation. Some of these lands they freely traded to John Batman in 1835 but which treaty was overturned by the governor of the time under the doctrine of 'terra nullius'; I acknowledge the Wurundjeri people as the traditional custodians of this land, and pay my respects to their Elders both past and present.

It's long past time we gave back the right to what was stolen.
posted by nonspecialist at 7:50 AM on August 20, 2016 [4 favorites]

I stand on Wathaurong land, in a forest once inhabited by the Marpeang Balug clan, also part of the Kulin nation. I acknowledge the Wathaurong people as the traditional custodians of this land, and pay my respects to their Elders both past and present.

I work in the criminal justice system and see the effects of our violent and racist past play out on a daily basis. Aboriginal kids are far more likely to end up in government care, and in doing so will be sent down a path where their behaviour is criminalised, their family networks are disrupted and their options in life diminish to vanishing.

I don't know what the solution is, and it may be that we are past the tipping point and these wrongs can never effectively be righted. But in the face of that likelihood, we can't stop trying, and a bloody good start would be to start to acknowledge the real history of occupation in this country. 'Australian history' needs to be a good deal less about Gallipoli and a good deal more about the protracted and government sanctioned genocide of our first people. This isn't liberal guilt, it's just what actually happened, and our understanding of our collective national psyche will never be complete until we acknowledge it.
posted by tim_in_oz at 4:55 PM on August 20, 2016 [6 favorites]

I was born in Wurundjeri country; my bedroom overlooked what was the last Melbourne 'reserve' for the Kulin nation people before they were shipped up to Coranderrk. I am currently sitting on Arakwal land, but will be returning soon to my home in Anaiwan country. I campaign as an activist for environmental issues in Kamilaroi/Gomeroi/Gamilaroi/ Gumillaroy/Comelroy country whose custodianship of water effects one third of the continent. I acknowledge the original people as the traditional custodians of this land and pay my respects to Elders past and present.

Thank you for surviving; for the wisdom of knowing which battles to fight; for the continual hope that you encourage that we can move forward as a nation; that we can all become custodians of country, culture and caring.
posted by Thella at 6:16 PM on August 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

I just sat through a welcome to country in the electorate of the first Aboriginal woman to ever be elected in to the House of Representatives.

Uncle Ken Madden apologised for not being able to welcome us in language as it had been forbidden to use language when he was a child and was not allowed to learn it.

(My Tibetan husband was in tears. Tibetan is now forbidden by the Chinese government to be taught in Tibet. It is also becoming a threatened language. )

It is, it always was, and it always will be, Aboriginal land. We are welcomed, but we were not invited.
posted by taff at 7:14 PM on August 20, 2016 [10 favorites]

'Australian history' needs to be a good deal less about Gallipoli and a good deal more about the protracted and government sanctioned genocide of our first people.

I agree and wish I was better educated on this.

Could anyone recommend resources - books, articles, etc - that would be informative and accessible to the lay reader?
posted by mosessis at 6:08 PM on August 29, 2016

mosessis, historian Henry Reynolds' canon of work can get anyone started on some real Australian history.
posted by Thella at 3:44 AM on August 31, 2016

Indigenous Community Television (ICTV) has a great video collection, with many short oral histories where you can hear direct from the old people about how things were. Plus a great deal else from the young. Here are a few history items:-

• Citizenship: A short doco on the history of Aboriginal citizenship in Broome.
• Thirty Years Too Long: Deals with the death of John Pat, a 16 year old Aboriginal boy who died at the hands of police in Roebourne, Western Australia, in 1983. The State Government finally apologised to John Pat's family on the 30th anniversary of his death. John Pat's death helped spark the long-running Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in Custody.
• Stolen Wages: Between 1905 and 1972 up to 75 per cent of money earned by Aboriginal people was forcibly withheld by the state. The money was placed into trust accounts but in most cases disappeared. For many years Aboriginal people have been calling for the return of their money. There has been a senate inquiry and a state inquiry into the matter. In 2012 the WA Government agreed to pay some claimants $2000 to settle the issue. Many people were not eligible to collect the funds despite having worked for many years without receiving wages. This short six-minute documentary looks at the issue and the ongoing fight for compensation.

Creative Spirits has a Resources section that's well worth perusing for books, movies, periodicals and more.

Ronin Films has many good movies available to rent (via Vimeo) or buy. One in particular I would recommend is Lousy Little Sixpence, an important documentary from the early 1980s that woke the nation to the story of the Stolen Generations. A bit more info on this film at Creative Spirits.

australia.gov.au is also worth a look, includes histories of indigenous film and broadcasting.
posted by valetta at 8:45 AM on September 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Thanks heaps! These are great suggestions. I'm stoked that I was able to check out an ebook copy of Reynolds's The Other Side of the Frontier from my local library. And I had never heard of ICTV but I'm looking forward to watching some of their collection.
posted by mosessis at 1:01 PM on September 7, 2016