Diane Fieldes
Fifty years ago in August 1966 an epic strike by Aboriginal pastoral workers in the Northern Territory began. Nine years later in 1975 Gough Whitlam posed for a famous photograph with Vincent Lingiari, pouring a handful of dirt into the stockman’s hand in a gesture at last acknowledging that the land belonged to the Gurindji people. Between those two events Aboriginal workers struck for equal wages and dignity, demanded and got support form unionists in the cities, and reclaimed their land, starting the modern land rights movement.