188 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
188 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
The '''Pilbara Strike of 1946 '''was a
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[strike](List_of_Strikes "wikilink") in
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[Australia](Australia "wikilink") in
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[early](Timeline_of_Libertarian_Socialism_in_Oceania "wikilink")
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[1946](Revolutions_of_1943_-_1949 "wikilink"), led by [indigenous
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farmworkers](Timeline_of_Indigenism "wikilink") for indigenous rights
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and workers rights.
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## Background
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was a landmark strike by Indigenous Australian pastoral workers in the
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Pilbara region of Western Australia for human rights recognition and
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payment of fair wages and working conditions. The strike involved at
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least 800 Aboriginal pastoral workers walking off the large Pastoral
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Stations in the Pilbara on 1 May 1946, and from employment in the two
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major towns of Port Hedland and Marble Bar. The strike did not end until
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August 1949 and even then many indigenous Australians refused to go back
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and work for white station owners.<sup>\[1\]</sup>
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It is regarded as one of the longest industrial strikes in Australia,
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and a landmark in indigenous Australians fighting for their human
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rights, cultural rights, and Native title.
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For many years Aboriginal pastoral workers in the Pilbara were denied
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cash wages and were only paid in supplies of tobacco, flour and other
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necessities.<sup>\[1\]</sup> The pastoral stations treated the
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Aboriginal workers as a cheap slave labour workforce to be exploited. If
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they tried to leave the station, they were found and brought back by the
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police, according to Don McLeod.
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European attacks and brutal shootings of whole family groups of
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indigenous Australians are part of the history of the region, though
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often not well documented. One attack took place at Skull Creek near
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Barrow Creek in the 1870s, which resulted in the bleached bones and thus
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the name for the place<sup>\[2\]</sup> There is a well documented report
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of a massacre in 1926 by a police party on the Forrest River Mission
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(now the Aboriginal community of Oombulgurri), in the East Kimberleys.
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Though there was a Royal commission into the reported killing and
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burning of Aborigines in East Kimberley, the police allegedly involved
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were brought to trial and acquitted.<sup>\[3\]</sup> (see List of
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massacres of indigenous Australians).
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As well as proper wages and better working conditions, Aboriginal lawmen
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sought natural justice arising from the original Western Australian
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colonial Constitution. As a condition for self-rule in the colony, the
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British Government insisted that once public revenue in WA exceeded
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500,000 pounds, 1 per cent was to be dedicated to "the welfare of the
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Aboriginal natives" under Section 70 of the
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Constitution.<sup>\[4\]</sup> Succeeding colonial and state Governments
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legislated to remove the funding provisions for "native welfare".
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Aboriginal plaintiffs from Strelley Station finally commenced an action
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in the State Supreme Court in 1994,<sup>\[5\]</sup> seeking a
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declaration that the 1905 repeal was invalid. In 2001, after protracted
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litigation, the High Court held that the 1905 repeal had been legally
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effective.<sup>\[6\]</sup>
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## The strike
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The strike was coordinated and led by Aboriginal lawmen Dooley Bin Bin
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and Clancy McKenna; and Don McLeod, an active unionist<sup>\[7\]</sup>
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and member of the Communist Party of Australia for a short period.
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According to McLeod in his book, *How the West was Lost*, self-published
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in 1984, the strike was planned at an Aboriginal law meeting in 1942 at
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Skull Springs (east of Nullagine), where a massacre had previously
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occurred. The meeting was attended by an estimated 200 senior Aboriginal
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law-men representing twenty-three language groups from much of the
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remote northwest of Australia. Discussions were protracted with the
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meeting lasting six weeks. McLeod was given the task of chief
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negotiator. The strike was postponed until after the Second World War
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had ended.<sup>\[8\]</sup>
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Crude calendars were taken from one station camp to another in early
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1946 to organise the strike. The efforts, if noticed by the white people
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present, were dismissed and laughed at. When 1 May 1946 occurred
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hundreds of Aboriginal workers left the pastoral stations and setup
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strike camps.
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The strike was most effective in the Pilbara region. Further afield in
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Broome and Derby and other inland northern towns, the strike movement
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was harshly suppressed by police action and was more short lived. Over
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the three years, occasionally strikers went back to work, while others
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joined or rejoined the strike.
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At the commencement of the strike in 1946, Don McLeod was an Australian
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Workers' Union delegate at Port Hedland wharf who motivated support by
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the Australian labour movement. The Western Australian branch of the
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Seamen's Union of Australia eventually put a blackban on the shipment of
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wool from the Pilbara. Nineteen unions in Western Australia, seven
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federal unions and four Trades and Labour councils supported the strike.
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The strike stimulated support from the Woman's Christian Temperance
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Union, who helped establish the Committee for the Defense of Native
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Rights. This organisation raised funds for and publicised the strike in
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Perth including organising a public meeting in the Perth Town Hall
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attended by 300 people.
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Many of the Aboriginal strikers served time in jail; some were seized by
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police at revolver point and put into chains for several days. At one
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stage in December 1946 Don McLeod was arrested in Port Hedland during
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the strike for 'inciting Aborigines to leave their place of lawful
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employment'; the Aboriginal strikers marched on the jail and McLeod was
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freed. McLeod was gaoled a total of seven times during the period, three
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times for being within five chains (100 m) of a congregation of natives,
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three times for inciting natives to leave their lawful employment, and
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once for forgery.
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In one incident during the strike, two policemen were sent out to the
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Five Mile Camp near Marble Bar. When they arrived they commenced
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shooting the people's dogs, even when they were chained up between their
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legs. Shooting the dogs of Aborigines was considered by some frontier
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Europeans as a sport. On this occasion the endangering of human life
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angered the strikers who quickly disarmed the two policeman. The local
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strike leader, Jacob Oberdoo, and other strikers held the policemen
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until they had regained some composure and then arranged their own
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arrests insisting they be taken into custody.
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Oberdoo was jailed three or four times and suffered humiliations and
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deprivations of many kinds during the strike, but maintained his dignity
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and solidarity for the length of the strike. In 1972 he was awarded the
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British Empire Medal but turned it down. McLeod described Oberdoo's
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reply to the Prime Minister rejecting the medal:
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-
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"he was unable to do business with, or accept favours from
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Law-carriers in bad standing. "You pin medals on dogs" was how he
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explained the real message underlying the award." The strikers were
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forced to sustain themselves by their traditional bush skills, hunting
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kangaroos and goats for both meat and skins. They also developed some
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cottage industry which brought some cash payment such as selling buffel
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grass seed in Sydney, the sale of pearl shell, and in surface mining.
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Aboriginal women played a vital role in the strike, both as workers on
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strike and in the establishment of strikers' camps, though their
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involvement has not been documented to the same extent as that of the
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men.<sup>\[9\]</sup> One woman activist Daisy Bindi, a woman from the
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Nungamurda people, led a walk-off of 96 workers at Roy Hill Station to
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join the strike.<sup>\[10\]</sup> Before the strike commenced, Bindi
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organised meetings in south-eastern Pilbara, which attracted police
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attention, and authorities threatened to remove her from the
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area.<sup>\[9\]</sup> During the strike she transported supporters to
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the strikers' camps, talking her way through a police confrontation. Her
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efforts played a large part in spreading the strike to the further
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stations in inland Pilbara.<sup>\[9\]</sup>
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Wages and conditions were eventually won by the strikers on Mt. Edgar
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and Limestone Stations. These two became a standard, with the strikers
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declaring that any station requiring labour would have to equal or
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better the rates of pay and conditions operating on these two.
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By August 1949, the Seamen's Union had agreed to blackban wool from
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stations in the Pilbara onto ships for export. On the third day after
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the ban had been applied, McLeod was told by a government representative
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that the strikers' demands would be met if the ban was lifted. A week
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after the strike ended and the ban was lifted, the government denied
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making any such agreement.
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After the strike concluded many Aborigines refused to go back to working
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in their old roles in the pastoral industry. Eventually they pooled
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their funds from surface mining and other cottage industry to buy or
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lease stations, including some they had formerly worked on, to run them
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as cooperatives.
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## Legacy
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The poet Dorothy Hewett visited Port Hedland in 1946 and wrote the poem
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*Clancey and Dooley and Don McLeod* about the strike,<sup>\[11\]</sup>
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which was subsequently put to music by folk musician Chris Kempster and
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recorded by Roy Bailey. The 1959 documentary novel *Yandy* by Donald
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Stuart deals with the strike.<sup>\[12\]</sup> In 1987 a documentary
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film was made about the strike by director David Noakes, titled *How the
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West was Lost*.<sup>\[13\]</sup>
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*Kangkushot, The Life of Nyamal Lawman Peter Coppin*, by Jolly Read and
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Peter Coppin, tells the story of Kangku's life including his leadership
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in the strike and after in setting up Yandeyarra station which still
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runs today. It was shortlisted for the 1999 Western Australian Premier's
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Book Awards.
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Yandy, a play written by Jolly Read, commissioned by Black Swan State
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Theatre Company, tells the story of the strike and its leaders and
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families. It won the 2004 Western Australian Premier's Book Award for
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best script and is published in Collection \#6 by the Australian Script
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Centre.
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Four streets in the Canberra suburb of Bonner were named after the
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strike leaders in 2010. Clancy McKenna Crescent, Dooley Bin Bin Street,
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Peter Coppin Street and Don McLeod Lane were all named after the men
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instrumental in organizing the strike.<sup>\[14\]</sup> |