ACTU Indigenous Leadership Conference 2016

August 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of Australia’s single longest strike and one of the most important industrial disputes in the Australian Trade Union movement’s proud history – the Wave Hill Walk Off.

In August 1966, Vincent Lingiari led the strike of 200 Aboriginal stockmen, domestic servants and their families.  The strike, over their appalling wages and conditions, eventually saw the end of discriminatory employment practices and became the catalyst point for the land rights movement in Australia, with Gough Whitlam returning the Gurindji lands in August 1975.

Throughout the protracted industrial and land rights dispute the Australian trade union movement stood shoulder to shoulder with the Gurindji workers. Unions and their partners provided significant support to workers and their families such as providing food & supplies, organising forums and protests in capital cities and sponsoring Aboriginal union organiser (NAWU) Mr Daniels to speak to trade union and community members down the breadth of the east coast to garner support for Aboriginal workers in the NT.

The Wave Hill Walk Off is a seminal event in Indigenous and industrial relations history and is the key ACTU event for 2016.