I came across a scrapbook of press cuttings for the National Library of Australia’s opening months (on this day, 15 August 1968) and it got me thinking about other significant anniversaries that occurred around this time.
Seven years and one day after the National Library of Australia opened the doors to its new building on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin, Vincent Lingiari and Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam met at Wattie Creek and with speeches and the symbolic gesture of a handful of soil, a nine-year protest about workers rights and sovereignty reached its conclusion. (Photograph by Mervyn Bishop in the National Library of Australia; nla.gov.au/nla.obj-153513023/view.)
On 23 August 1966, Lingiari and 200+ Gurindji men, woman and children, left the cattle station of Lord Vestey at Wave Hill and began the long walk to Wattie Creek. On this anniversary of the gathering at Wattie Creek and in the year in which Australia will have a chance to acknowledge all First Nations peoples with The Voice Referendum, it seems fitting to reflect upon the Wave Hill Walk Off and bring my 2019 post to the fore.
You can read more from Thomas Mayo on Vincent in his book, Freedom Day, and his books for young and old about the Uluru Statement from the Heart and The Voice Referendum.
And as I did with the post from 2019, I want to leave Vincent Lingiari with the last word; words so appropriate as the country thinks about The Voice Referendum and whether they will be voting yes or no.
“Let us live happily together as mates, let us not make it hard for each other.
…We want to live in a better way together, Aboriginals and white men, let us not fight over anything, let us be mates.”
The Plodding Historian 