In 1966, some 200 Gurindji people walked away from their jobs in northern Australia to protest the loss of their native lands and to have their claims to that land restored. That process began on this day in 1975 when Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam symbolically gave the Gurindji rights to part of their ancestral lands. They’ve since regained more of their own territory. But this transfer was pivotal in passing the Aboriginal Land Rights Act of 1976, which gave other indigenous Australians a legal path to acquiring titles to their ancestral lands.

The iconic 1975 color photo of Vincent Lingiari accepting a handful of soil from Australian PM Gough Whitlam. The gesture symbolized return of land rights to the indigenous Gurindji people of what is now northern Australia. Photo credit: Mervyn Bishop Image source: ABC (Australia)

On this day in 1975, a major event for the Gurindji people in northern Australia and in the history of land rights for indigenous people.
#History #OTD #Indigenous #NativeLands #WaveHillWalkoff