Lecture marks 50 years since historic Lingiari walk-off

This year’s 16th annual Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture will commemorate 50 years since the historic walk-off from Wave Hill Station by Indigenous stockmen and their families, planting the seeds for Aboriginal land rights in Australia.

A former NSW Australian of the Year and Indigenous social justice advocate will deliver this year’s lecture at Charles Darwin University on Thursday, 11 August.

Harvard Law School graduate, Professor Larissa Behrendt is a Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman from New South Wales and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology Sydney.

The lecture, entitled “Fifty Years since Wave Hill: Vincent Lingiari and the Heartland Legacy, Custodianship in the 21st Century”, will explore Vincent Lingiari’s vision and its relevance today.

“Fifty years ago, Vincent Lingiari led an Indigenous walk off from Wave Hill Station that has become one of the most important political moments in contemporary Australian history,” Professor Behrendt said.

“It was a protest movement that did not just have deep symbolic value, but also had a profound intellectual base.”

Professor Behrendt said the notions of access to equal opportunity and rights within Australian society and the claims of Indigenous identity and nationhood continued to shape the contemporary political aspirations of Indigenous people.

“Lingiari’s vision for the future saw not just the importance of socio-economic equality, it also recognised the importance of strong Indigenous communities and cultures,” she said.

“Indigenous knowledges have a critical role to play in innovation, sustainability and resilience. Acknowledging and respecting this wisdom will not just offer important opportunities moving forward, but should reinforce the central place of Indigenous people in Australian society.”

NAIDOC Person of the Year in 2009 and NSW Australian of the Year in 2011, Professor Behrendt is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia and a foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. She also is an acclaimed writer and film-maker.

The 11 August event at CDU’s Casuarina campus amphitheatre will begin at 6pm, with the lecture starting at 7pm. The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information visit: W: cdu.edu.au/indigenous-leadership/vincent-lingiari