Yijarni: True stories from Gurindji Country
(Paperback)
Publishing Details
Yijarni: True stories from Gurindji Country
By (Author) Erika Charola
Edited by Felicity Meakins
Aboriginal Studies Press
Aboriginal Studies Press
1st August 2016
Australia
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
Social and cultural history
Indigenous peoples / Indigeneity
994.290049915
Physical Properties
Paperback
256
Width 170mm, Height 240mm, Spine 15mm
1054g
Description
On 23 August 1966, approximately 200 Gurindji stockmen and their families walked off Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory, protesting against poor working conditions and the taking of their land by pastoralists. Led by Vincent Lingiari, this land-mark action in 1966 precipitated the equal wages case in the pastoral industry and the establishment of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976. While it is well known that the Walk Off was driven by the poor treatment of Aboriginal workers, what is less well known is the previous decades of massacres and killings, stolen children and other abuses by early colonists. Told in both English and Gurindji these compelling and detailed oral accounts of the events that Gurindji elders either witnessed or heard from their parents and grandparents, will ignite the interest of audiences nationally and internationally and challenge revisionist historians who question the extent of frontier battles and the legitimacy of the Stolen Generations. Listen to the Radio National, Late Night Live podcast of the interview with Felicity Meakins and Robert Roy whose parents took part in the Wave Hill Walkoff. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/wave-hill-walk-off
Author Bio
Erika Charola is an ESL teacher and consultant linguist who began working with Indigenous people in the Victoria River District (Northern Territory) twenty years ago. She has also undertaken extensive documentation of Gurindji stories, which form the basis for this book. Felicity Meakins is a Senior Research Fellow in linguistics at the University of Queensland. She specialises in the documentation of Australian languages in the Victoria River District (Northern Territory). During the past 15 years she has worked as a community linguist and academic, facilitating language revitalisation programs, consulting on native title claims and conducting research into Indigenous languages.
