Country, Culture, People, Future

Western Australian Indigenous Affairs

7th Annual On-Country Bush meeting at the Yule River Meeting Place.

Posted: August 20th, 2021

The 7th Annual Yule River bush meeting will be held on Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 August. This year the focus of discussions will be on cultural heritage protection and the 2020 Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Bill draft.

Day one is for Traditional Owners only, to come together to discuss their concerns and how they would like to tackle issues raise.

Day two invites visitors from Government to join the conversations and hear directly from the community.

Yule River has become an important platform for ensuring Traditional Owners remain at the centre of decision-making and we again look forward to involvement from Traditional Owners, government representatives, and stakeholders in 2021.

Please note this COVID Registration of attendance of the event will be required. YMAC will ensure the meeting meets the current State and Local Government guidelines and requires all attendees support these efforts to keep the community safe.

ALL attendees will be required to –

  • Have their temperature checked on arrival.
  • Sign the attendance register agreeing to adhere to the recommended safety measures and give your name and contact details (including telephone number) for the purpose of contact tracing.

YMAC is required to hold these details for 28 days and pass them to the Department of Health if required;

  • Sanitise your hands on arrival and regularly during the course of the meetings; and cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue (or use your elbow).
  • Maintain a 1.5m distance (about two arms lengths) from each other.

Face masks will be made available at registration.

Lunch will be provided both days, self-catered camping is available.

This is an alcohol and drug free event, YMAC is unable to pay travel allowance.

RSVP to: lcornell@ymac.org.au

CATSI Amendment Bill needs your feedback

Posted: July 9th, 2021

The Australian Government is bringing forward a Bill to amend the CATSI Act in line with recommendations made in the CATSI Act Review final report, released early this year.

The National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) is seeking your feedback on a draft of the CATSI Amendment Bill which has been published on the National Indigenous Australians Agency website.

Accompanying the exposure draft is a guide that maps the recommendations from the final report to the items of the exposure draft. Fact sheets are also available that outline the draft changes in each part of the CATSI Amendment Bill.

The NIAA would like feedback from stakeholders about those aspects of the Bill they support, in addition to any concerns regarding practical barriers or unintended consequences associated with implementation. The NIAA is also interested in feedback on the clarity, readability and complexity of the draft legislation.

Written submissions to CATSIActReview@niaa.gov.au can be sent until 9:00am Monday, 9 August 2021. Or you can register to attend a virtual consultation session here.

Please contact the team at CATSIActReview@niaa.gov.au or on (02) 6271 5111, if the consultation options are not accessible to you so that we can arrange an alternative mechanism for you to provide feedback.

What does Heal Country mean to you? Sean McNeair tells us

Posted: July 8th, 2021

Sean McNeair is a Malgana man from Gutharraguda, Shark Bay. His message in this video covers only a small part of what healing and caring for Country means for Sean.

We ask you to take one minute of time to watch, listen, learn, think, and share – what does Heal Country mean to you?

Thanks to Ben Pankhurst from Bush Heritage for sharing some of his vision to be used in this video.

#healcountry #heritageprotectionforlife#naidocweek2021 #naidocweek #bushheritage #YMAC

YMAC supports new First Nations Talent Portal

Posted: June 21st, 2021

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has launched its First Nations Talent Portal. The portal represents the ABC’s commitment to undertaking braver, more impactful action.

As it grows, the portal will become an invaluable resource for the ABC by enabling story-makers and content producers access to the right people for their projects.

YMAC supports the ABC’s commitment to amplifying the voices of First Nations people across their projects from behind the scenes to in front of the camera. This is a positive step to responsibly and appropriately representing Aboriginal culture and history.

We encourage First Nations people to connect directly to the ABC by submitting an interest directly through the Talent Portal.

Register to attend YMAC meetings on 10, 11 and 14 June about draft Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Bill

Posted: June 4th, 2021

Representatives from Prescribed Bodies Corporate and Traditional Owners from YMAC’s representative region are invited to attend meetings to discuss the draft Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Bill.

YMAC believes there is great risk that should the draft bill circulated in 2020 be adopted, Aboriginal people will continue to take the backseat in critical decisions about important cultural sites. Consultation on the draft bill has been poor and YMAC is concerned Traditional Owners have limited or no understanding of the draft laws.

Agenda includes:

  • YMAC update on advocacy work undertaken on the bill to date,
  • Discuss outstanding concerns about the draft bill that may negatively impact Traditional Owners if the draft bill in the form distributed in 2020 goes through.
  • Discuss action to achieve equity for Traditional Owners in the new laws.

Note: The Pilbara meetings have been called for by concerned Pilbara Traditional Owners and will also include discussion on working together to better protect heritage in the region.

Meetings are being facilitated by YMAC on the following dates.

  • Thursday 10 June – Karratha: 9:30am to 2pm at the Red Earth Arts Precinct, 27 Welcome Road Karratha
  • Friday 11 June – Port Hedland: 9:30am to 2pm in the Ocean Room at the Hedland Hotel, Cnr Lukis and McGregor Street, Port Hedland
  • Monday 14 June – Carnarvon: 9:30am to 2pm, Wool Shed Hall, 21 Robinson Street, Carnarvon

To assist catering please RSVP to jmitchell@ymac.org.au or call YMAC on 1800 270 709 to find out more.

Pilbara Aboriginal Voice and Danjoo Koorliny Walking Together Towards 2029 and Beyond – West Pilbara Tour

Posted: May 25th, 2021

YMAC is proud to have been a supporter of the recent Pilbara Aboriginal Voice (PAV) and Danjoo Koorliny West Pilbara Tour.

This important initiative involved the Danjoo Koorliny leadership team, in partnership with and hosted by PAV, travelling up from Perth to visit the West Pilbara region to be shown Country and to workshop ideas for how Western Australia Aboriginal people might move forward together.

The community workshops held as part of this trip provided an opportunity for people to learn more about the Danjoo Koorliny movement and to share their thoughts and aspirations for how people and organisations in the Pilbara can become more involved and what this might all mean for them. Speaking on the value of these sessions, PAV organiser, Sissy Ramirez, said “It is so important for us, as Aboriginal people, to listen to each other, to support each other, and to come together so we can be stronger together.”

Dr Noel Nannup, Danjoo Koorliny leader, added further, “Everyone has a piece of the pathway to the future. We each need to polish our own part and put it together to form a collective path to go forward together. We can’t speak for you. So come and speak for yourselves.”

YMAC very much looks forward to seeing what positive outcomes this partnership will foster into the future.

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PAV is a regional leadership group, nominated and endorsed by the community at the Annual On-Country Bush Meetings at Yule River. The group comprises a collective of representatives from many different language groups from across the region. The objective of PAV is to provide a strong, unified community voice that can influence policy reforms and advise relevant decision-makers on issues affecting Pilbara Aboriginal people. It is PAV’s intention to consult, collaborate, co-design and co-create effective, culturally appropriate solutions to the benefit of all Pilbara Aboriginal people.

For more information about PAV, please visit their website here.

Danjoo Koorliny Walking Together Towards 2029 and Beyond is a bold, long-term, large-scale, Aboriginal-led systems change project to help all of us – be it in Western Australia, the rest of Australia, or around the world – walk together as Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people to co-create a better future for all. It is everyone contributing to the journey towards 2029, and beyond. A date that will mark 200 years since colonisation starting in Western Australia. It belongs to no organisation but hovers above all of us and aligns us so that we can care for everything. For generations upon generations.

For more information about Danjoo Koorliny, please visit their website here.

YMAC News Issue 42 available now

Posted: May 7th, 2021

The latest edition of YMAC News is now available on our website. To read it or download it, click here.

Remembering the 1946 Pilbara Strike

Posted: April 20th, 2021

2021 marks the 75th anniversary of the landmark Pilbara pastoral strike which is now recognised as Australia’s longest strike. 

On May 1, 1946 around 800 Aboriginal workers and their families walked off stations across the Pilbara where they were being forced to work. This action was despite great danger and lasted for months following, to protest poor wages and living conditions, and their battle for justice.

They had been disinherited of their land by the squatters and government and forced to work for decades on the stations for meagre rations, and little or no wages; their lives subject to the exploitation and whims of the pastoralists, government agents and legislators.

Many strikers said they lived no better than slaves.

A large number of workers and their families joined the strike during the Port Hedland races weekend in August 1946, after they travelled to the track on the horse trucks and by train. When the races finished, they refused requests by the squatters to return to the stations. Peter Coppin had a gun pulled on him by a policeman during one stand-off. Another strike leader, Ernie Mitchell was arrested but later released.

The legendary Daisy Bindi led around 90 people off Roy Hill station in a courageous quest to join the strike.

How it happened:

The idea to strike was first proposed by Don McLeod, a white miner and fencer who witnessed the treatment of Aboriginal workers and became increasingly disturbed by the inequality and exploitation. He made strong connections with the Aboriginal men working for him, and he paid them good wages for their work. Word spread among station workers about the difference in their treatment and an undercurrent of discontent grew.

McLeod explained the strike concept to a large Law meeting held at Skull Springs in 1942, where it was proposed to hold a mass station walk-off when the Second World War was over. An ingenious plan was hatched to spread the strike date to the station workers. May 1 was chosen because it was International Workers’ Day. This date was marked with a cross on hand-drawn calendars, and secretly delivered to the station workers by Lawmen and strike leaders, Dooley Bin Bin and Clancy McKenna.

What happened?

For three years the strikers endured great hardship, physical danger, violence and threats. There were chainings and gaolings of strikers, including Clancy McKenna and Dooley Bin Bin, and McLeod was fined for ‘inciting natives’.

During this period they set up camps across the Pilbara, including at Two Mile, Four Mile, Twelve Mile (Tjalku Wara) and Moolyella, where families and groups lived and ‘yandied’ or mined for tin and minerals, such as beryl and tantalite, to sell for food and clothing. They also collected and bagged oyster shell along the coast, buffel seed and goats skins to earn enough money to survive.

At the same time as protesting against their treatment by the pastoralists, the strikers were questioning the laws that governed their lives; laws that meant they had no right to marry without permission from the ‘Protector of Natives’, no right to demand wages for their work, no right to education, no right to enter towns after dusk, and no right to vote.

The strikers received moral and financial support for their cause from a number of organisations. Don McLeod enlisted the help of the Communist Party of which he was a member, and the Seamen’s Union which placed a black ban on the loading of wool, putting pressure on the pastoralists to pay a minimum wage to their Aboriginal workers. Churches and women’s Christian groups in Perth also helped raise funds and awareness of the strikers’ purpose. The issue was raised at the United Nations as well.

What was achieved?

The strikers stood firm, and their bravery and determination finally forced changes that helped initiate the restoration and recognition of their basic human rights.

In 1959, the strikers formed two groups – the Nomads and the Mugarinya group – these groups went on to own stations, including Strelley, Warralong and Yandeyarra.

While the strike is recognised as concluding in 1949, there was no official ending. There are people who still claim to be on strike as they never went back to work on the stations.

The strike – sometimes called the ‘Black Eureka’- has been described by Senator Pat Dodson (former Chair of the Council for Reconciliation), as “an important and inspiring milestone in the national battle for justice, rights, equality and recognition for Indigenous people”.

In 2010, the new suburb of ‘Bonner’ (after Senator Neville Bonner) was created in Canberra – it has four street names of some of the famous strikers to honour the 1946 Pilbara station strike – Clancy McKenna Crescent, Dooley Bin Bin Street, Peter Coppin Street, and Don McLeod Lane.

Words from those who led:

“We didn’t live in houses or anything. We had to go down to the creek like kangaroos. We just want to be treated like human beings, not cattle.”[1] Nyangumarta woman and strike leader, the late Daisy Bindi, who led the walk-off from Roy Hill station.

“We want to better ourselves. We just want better conditions…We’ve been working for the Squatters long enough and all we get is a chunk of meat, corned beef, dry bread. We want to walk off all that.”[2] Nyamal Lawman and strike leader, the late Clancy McKenna.

“We lived no better than the cattle but we worked all day for the right to do even that! We were skinny people back then, and we lived through plenty of starvation times. Things are different now but that’s because of the fight we had…that bloody big battle.”[3] Nyamal Lawman and strike leader, the late Peter Coppin.

“We will have hard times, but for our own people, not like now, hard times, for the whitefellas with their cattle stations and sheep stations. We will win.”[4] Nyangumarta Lawman and strike leader, Dooley Bin Bin.

“…the road will be hard and very long, but don’t ever despair. The Police will be against us, the squatters, perhaps Government, and there will be gaol and chains and all sorts of rough times but we can do it.”[5] The miner and fencer, the late Don McLeod, who helped the strikers.

Words from family members:

“When I found our family and took my Mum home to meet everyone, we were so proud to learn about the strike. We heard great stories about the mob working around the Pilbara. I remember our old people saying, ‘We still on strike.’ We can’t  forget their bravery and my grandchildren need to know more of this story.” Rose Murray, Nyangumarta woman, former Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation member.

I think what was remarkable was the way our mob were so super organised – the       bike story is incredible! What’s been handed down to us and our pride in our forefathers and mothers, crosses the Pilbara. It is powerful but quiet – it connects  all the mobs. It drives us forward. Michelle Broun, Yindjibarndi women and curator, Australian First Nations Art, John Curtin Gallery.

YMAC thanks Working Group member, writer and playwright Jolly Read for her contribution to this story.  

Want to know about Anniversary events? 

Join the ‘Remembering the 1946 Pilbara Strike’ Facebook page,

Learn: www.wangkamaya.org.au/pilbara-history-and-culture/01-the-1946-strike 

www.pilbarastrike.org

Quotes referenced from:

[1] https://www.facebook.com/ABCIndigenous/videos/568005010740876/

[2] Somewhere Between Black and White, Kingsley Palmer, Clancy McKenna, The MacMillan Company, 1978

[3] Kangkushot, The Life of Nyamal Lawman, Peter Coppin, ASP- AIATSIS, 1998, Revised 2014.

[4] Yandy, Donald Stuart, Georgian House, Melbourne, 1959.

[5] Ibid.

2021 Leadership WA Foundation Scholarships: Regional Aboriginal Leadership Development

Posted: March 17th, 2021

Applications for the Regional Aboriginal Leadership Development Scholarships’ 2021 ‘Rising Leadership Program’ are currently being accepted (closing Monday, 19 April 2021).

The Regional Aboriginal Leadership Development Scholarships, supported by Lotterywest and the Leadership WA Foundation, are supporting regional Aboriginal participants to attend the ‘Rising Leadership Program’ (consisting of ten one-day workshops to be held between July through December 2021).

The scholarships enable participants to develop leadership skills and capabilities to re-invest back into their local communities. This will create even further positive impact upon regional WA and Aboriginal communities and businesses. In addition, the experiences, skills and cultural insights learned will act to educate and develop fellow cohort members, building further shared understandings.

The ‘Rising Leadership Program’ equips mid-level professionals from all sectors and industries with the tools to become authentic and effective leaders in the workplace. It guides participants on how to build their potential through personal growth, and helps them understand the essential skills required by future leaders. The program aims to provide participants with the frameworks, tools and relevant resources to help them on their journey to becoming effective leaders. This is achieved by introducing practical strategies and theories to develop professional leadership.

Interested ‘Rising Leadership Program’ participants can register via Leadership WA’s application form.

Please note, the Leadership WA Foundation scholarships cover the organisational fee ($7,150), as well as related travel and accommodation costs for participants to travel to Perth to participate in the program. The scholarships do not cover the personal fee ($660), as this represents the applicant’s self-investment. However, this fee can be covered with a payment plan, if required.

If you would like to know more about this opportunity, please visit the program’s webpage, or contact Leadership WA at (08) 6381 6700 or connect@leadershipwa.org.au.

If you would like to know more about other upcoming scholarship and program opportunities offered by Leadership WA, please check out this brochure, or visit their website.

 

Country is our mother, the provider and keeper of cultural belongings. Country and Culture go together. You can’t have one without the other.

Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners and custodians throughout Western Australia, and on whose Country we work. We acknowledge and respect their deep connection to their lands and waterways.

We honour and pay respect to Elders, and to their ancestors who survived and cared for Country.

Our offices are located on Whadjuk Country, Southern Yamatji Country, Yinggarda Country, Kariyarra Country, and Yawuru Country. We recognise the continuing culture, traditions, stories and living cultures on these lands and commit to building a brighter future together.

Disclaimer: Caution: Please be advised that this website may contain images, voices and names of deceased people.

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