32 © Knowledge Books & Software, 2016

Vincent Lingiari – Land Rights Activist

At the time of European colonisation, Australia was not empty of

people! There were Aboriginal people watching as the First Fleet sailed

into Sydney Harbour. The whole of Australia was covered by many

nations (tribes) of people. There were hundreds of different languages

spoken. Aboriginal ownership of land was not a formal process like it

was in Europe. The lands were still occupied and owned though! The

British understood this, but they ignored it. This was so they could say

that they owned the land.

The land of the

tribe or nation was

protected. Land was

fought over by

warring tribes. Land

was owned by the

whole tribe, and

had been this way

for tens of

thousands of years.

This meant the land

was held in trust for

all members of the

tribe.

Today, the closest

example of tribal

ownership of land is

in Papua New

Guinea (PNG). It is

called ‘customary

land ownership’.

This means land belongs to all the tribe and cannot be sold.

Vincent Lingiari – Land Rights Activist

36 © Knowledge Books & Software, 2016

In 1975, the

Federal

Government

negotiated with

Vestey’s to return

some of the

Gurindji lands.

The official

handback took

place on the 16th

of August, 1975.

At the ceremony,

Prime Minister

Gough Whitlam poured sand from the ground into Vincent Lingiari’s

hands. To Lingiari, and the other Gurindji people there, Whitlam said:

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.

On the 7th of June, 1976, Lingiari was named a Member of the Order

of Australia. This was for efforts to represent the land rights of his

people.

Vincent’s legacy

Vincent Lingiari’s efforts set off a series of land rights claims. The

Aboriginal people now knew how they could try to claim back the

lands they had lived on for tens of thousands of years!

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Charles ‘Chika’ Dixon – Leader and Social Activist

Charles Dixon was born

in 1928. He died on the

20th of March, 2010. In

1970, he helped start

the Aboriginal Legal

Service in Redfern. This

was to help Aboriginal

people get fair treatment

in the legal system.

Dixon had worked on

the wharves in Sydney

as a teenager. He was

involved with a union

called the Waterside

Workers’ Federation.

The unions have a long

history of protest. They

were also one of the few

groups in Australia who

supported Indigenous

rights. Some of the

unions were aligned to Communist groups. These groups believed the

rights of Indigenous people were important. When asked by his

mother if he was becoming a ‘red’ (a Communist), Dixon said,

jokingly, “may as well be a red as they are doing better than the

blacks.”

Dixon was involved with organising campaigns for the 1967

Referendum. In the referendum, Australians voted to amend the

constitution. This would mean Indigenous people were included in the

census. It also meant the Commonwealth could make laws for them.

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Eddie Mabo – Terra Nullius and Land Rights

Eddie Mabo was

born in June

1936. He died in

January, 1992.

Mabo was from

the Torres Strait

Islands off Cape

York. His home

island was the

Murray Islands

(Mer). From there,

the coast of

Papua is closer

than the

Australian

mainland.

Mabo married

Bonita Neehow in

1959. She might

have been from

the islands of

Vanuatu. Many people from these islands were taken as slaves and

called ‘south Sea Islanders’. They were brought to Australia to work in

the sugar cane fields.

Mabo had a family of 10 children and lived most of the time in

Townsville. Mabo worked on pearling boats, as a cane cutter, and a

railway fettler. Later he became a gardener at James Cook University

in Townsville. This was the start of an incredible series of events!