Vincent Lingiari was the 'Kadijeri man', the leader of the Gurindji people, Northern Territory at the time they held a walk-off at Wave Hill pastoral station in 1966. The catalyst for the walk-off was the poor conditions and pay for Aboriginal workers on the cattle station, Wave Hill, run by the British company Vesteys. Lingiari kept his people strong, telling them that they would live off the land and that they were not to receive any bribes from the Wave Hill Station manager or the Australian government. In a petition to the Governor General Lord Casey, the Gurindji leaders stated 'Our people have lived here from time immemorial and our culture, myths, dreaming and sacred places have evolved in this land. Many of our forefathers were killed in the early days while trying to retain it. Therefore we feel that morally the land is ours and should be returned to us.' (Petition to Lord Casey from the leaders of the Gurindji people, April 1967 in Broom, R. Aboriginal Australians, p177). Vincent's thumbprint was the first signature on this petition. He spent time travelling around Australia telling people of his cause and why the Gurindji people had to strike at Wave Hill.
It was not until seven years later that Vincent and his people were successful with their protest. Gough Whitlam visited Lingiari at Wave Hill in 1975, where he poured a handful of sand into Vincent's hand, telling him, 'I put into your hands a part of the earth itself as a sign that this land will be the possession of you and your children forever'. To which Lingiari replied 'We are mates now', then he turned to his people and said '... They took our country away from us, now they brought it back ceremonially.'
The Gurindji success was further reflected in the Commonwealth Lands Rights Act (NT) of 1976. Lingiari is remembered in the song 'From Little Things Big Things Grow', by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody.
