The Wave Hill Walk Off was a historic moment in Australian history – here’s why

Vincent Lingiari’s historic Wave Hill Walk Off resulted in historic land rights that continue to change Australia. See the historic pictures here.

HISTORY was made in 1966 when Vincent Lingiari and 200 Gurindji workers walked off an outstation in the Northern Territory.

It was a landmark protest that gave birth to the Northern Territory Land Rights Act and will bring hundreds to Kalkarindji for the Freedom Day Festival this weekend.

The Gurundji people protested the unlawful occupation of their land and demanded it be returned to Traditional Owners, a legal battle that took more than 10 years.

In 1976 then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam passed the red dust from his palm to that of Gurundji man Vincent Lingiari.

This symbolic act led to legislative reform resulting in more than 50 per cent of Northern Territory land returned to Traditional Owners and through the High Court’s 2008 Blue Mud Bay native title decision about 85 per cent of the coastline.

It has significantly transformed the way self-determination and enterprise has occurred in the Territory, something no other state in Australia can claim.

The iconic moment has led to large scale artworks and one of Australia’s most beloved singles by Paul Kelly From Little Things Big Things Grow.

A sea of colour washed over the historic remote community on Friday, with children leading hundreds in a procession of bright flags in the Freedom March.

After recreating the walk off, attendees listened to Territory rising star J-Milla and Paul Kelly.

After a two-year Covid delay, festival director Luke Wright said there were “really positive vibes in the air” as up to 3000 people camped out in the “tent city” at one of the nation’s most remote festivals.

“A lot of people see it as a real pilgrimage to honour and celebrate the Wave Hill Walk Off,” Mr Wright said.

Mr Wright said the Gurindji people held the annual festival to “keep their story alive”.

“It’s to pass on their story to the community and the wider Australian community,” Mr Wright said.

“This is a heartland for really important issues.

“It’s about looking back at our history … and looking towards the future.”

Gurindji people march with visitors, celebrate the 56th anniversary of the Wave Hill Walk Off marking the start of the land rights movement across Australia with a weekend of sport, Politics and Culture. Picture: Glenn Campbell/NLC

Northern Territory Senator Malarndirri McCarthy said the Wave Hill Walk Off was a reminder of how difficult things were prior to 1966.

“Watching what happened with the Gurundji walk off in ‘66 was important to the struggle and the fight for land rights … for my people it took nearly 40 years to actually win our land,” she said.

“So when we say it’s nearly 66 years since that occurred, for many years people have still been fighting in court cases to actually win that land back.”

On Friday Uluru Statement from the Heart signatory Thomas Mayor gave the annual Charles Darwin University Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture for the first time in Kalkarindji.

In that speech he too acknowledges the ongoing fight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have in regaining their land rights.

“I acknowledge those of us who are fighting to protect country – sacred Country that is being blown up, dug up, bulldozed, dried up, overfished and poisoned,” his speech reads.

He will reflect on his first visit to Gurindji country, which was during the 45th anniversary celebrations, where he sat beneath the shade of trees listening to Elders.

“As I listened, I imagined Lingiari’s courage. I want us all to imagine his courage and be inspired by it,” he writes.

“Let us remember Vincent Lingiari, a man who dared to pursue a dream to live on

Gurindji land, the Gurindji way.”

Mr Mayor urged audiences to remember Vincent Lingiari as a “visionary man who dared to pursue a dream”

“A dream of a new relationship with broader Australia – one where First Nations people and kartiya could live as mates.”