Stockmen Tribute

Aboriginal Stockmen Tribute

Cattle stations were established and Aboriginal people were forced to work on them. Keep in mind that many Aboriginal people chose to work on cattle stations so that they could be close to there country. It was the only way to survive in these very difficult times. Even when Aboriginal people worked in the cattle industry they experienced injustices, for example being paid in rations, or non-award wages, and enduring substandard working and living conditions. Berndt and Berndt in End of an Era (1987) give an example of ration payments:

“At the end of their season’s work, the stockboys would come to the station store to receive their ‘walkabout rations’, which were officially supposed to last them for one month. This consisted of half a bag of flour (twenty-five pounds), eight pounds of sugar, one pound of tea, one tin of baking powder, twelve sticks of tobacco, one handkerchief, and three boxes of matches (Berndt and Bernd 1987: 70)”.

Bessie Malarvi (RIP) asked me to try to restore old stockman photograph , her father is second from the right.

Jimmy Wavehill at Wavehill Station Northern Territory, photo by JDHampton
Jimmy Wavehill Lightning Painting Combined of a photo of him when he young fella on cattle station
Vincent Lingiari (stockman) - rare unseen photo, historic old photo, granted permission to photograph (JDHampton) Wavehill Station

The ongoing poor quality of life was intolerable and this lead Gurindji elders to stand up and fight for their rights. “On 22 August 1966 the Gurindji people, working as stockmen and station hands in the north-west of Central Australia, walked off Wave Hill Station, then owned by England’s Lord Vestey. Soon after, they set up a permanent camp nearby on part of their traditional land at Daguragu, a waterhole on Wattie Creek. A ten year battle led by Vincent Lingiari followed,which moved from strike for wages and better working conditions to a political struggle that eventually led to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.

Then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam handed over the lease to Daguragu Station in August 1975 by pouring a handful of soil into the hands of Vincent Lingiari and saying the land would belong ‘to you and your children forever (Wright, 1998: 1)”.

Design effect JDHampton | AI-assisted concept- Stockmen Tribute::

Gurindji elder, Mr Inverway, recalls Vincent Lingiari as a hard man with a strong heart. 'Donald Nangiari, Vincent Lingiari and Captain Major-they been talk really hard to Vestey's. Because Vestey's been treating these people all over Australia just like a dog. They were good stockmen, really good men' (Inverway, 1998: 2). These historical changes that led to land rights for the Gurindji and eventually for other Aboriginal people were positive, but there were also negative outcomes. Many Gardiya people who owned cattle stations where unable to accept the idea of equal pay for Aboriginal employees and of land rights, and preferred to see my grandfather and his family leave the station rather than pay them wages for their work. A new way of life began which was the result of unemployment. Aboriginal people were relocated to artificial Aboriginal communities and were taught to become dependent on welfare and government funding.

"Stockmen of the Red Dust" We rode the dawn with stockwhip crack, On country wide and skies outback. The white boss called us "boys" with scorn, Yet mustered his best at break of morn. Our hands knew every hoof and hide, Each dusty track where dreams abide. The cattle ran by Gurindji grace, Yet pennies filled the white man’s place. No wage but flour, no bed but earth, While Vesteys counted stolen worth. But deep beneath the station’s chain, The old Law whispered "Rise again." We walked off slow—but walked off right. POEM TRIBUTE = JDHampton | AI-assisted concept

Historic Context:

  • Wave Hill Station was a cattle station in the Northern Territory, operated by the British company Vesteys. Aboriginal workers, including Lingiari, endured poor working conditions and were paid significantly less than non-Indigenous workers.

  • In August 1966, Lingiari led around 200 Gurindji workers and their families in a strike, walking off Wave Hill Station in protest. This became a landmark event in the fight for Indigenous rights.

  • The protest evolved into a demand for the return of traditional Gurindji lands, culminating in Prime Minister Gough Whitlam symbolically handing back part of the land in 1975.

Vincent Lingiari (stockman) - rare photo:: Vincent Lingiari was a Gurindji man and a prominent Indigenous Australian activist, best known for his role in the Wave Hill Walk-Off in 1966—a pivotal event in the struggle for Aboriginal land rights in Australia.

"The Walk of Vincent Lingiari"

 

Beneath the sun’s unyielding gaze,

On land where ancient Dreamings blaze,

A stockman stood—his spirit strong,

Yet bound by chains of cruel wrong.

 

Vincent Lingiari, A PROUD, Gurindji man

Knew justice had been torn apart.

The whip, the wage, the stolen ground,

Where whispers of his people drowned.

 

Then came the day the silence broke,

With weary hands and hearts that spoke.

Two hundred souls, in dust they rose,

And walked away from stolen throes.

 

"No more!" they cried beneath the sky,

"This earth is ours—we will not die

As shadows on another’s land,

We take our stand, we make our stand!"

 

Through years they fought, through wind and rain,

Through chains of greed and bitter pain.

Till Whitlam came with outstretched hand,

And gave them back their sacred sand.

 

Now in the soil, the truth runs deep,

Where children dance and old men weep.

For Vincent’s walk still lights the way

The land was theirs, and ours today.

For the Gurindji, for the land, for the courage that still stands.


Why This Matters: It’s transparent about AI’s role while highlighting “your” artistic vision (you’re the director here!) . 


POEM TRIBUTE = JDHampton | AI-assisted concept

 

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