The Freedom Day Festival
In Week 6 Term 3, boarding students from Kalkaringi, Dagaragu and Lajamanu will travel home for the Freedom Day Festival. Freedom Day Festival is held to remember those who fought for our land rights by walking off Wave Hill Station and going on strike at Wattie Creek (Dagaragu).
It is a special day for the Gurindji people because our grandfathers and grandmothers were part of the walk-off with the old people, and our mums and dads do the Freedom Day Walk every year. The Wave Hill Walk Off happened in 1966, and since then, we celebrate it as an important part of Gurindji and Australian history.
Other language groups from around the area, Ngarinman, Bilinara, Warlpiri and Mudbara, joined the first Walk Off. Now people come from many places to celebrate their family members. Families gather to recreate the Wave Hill Walk Off and have lots of fun. At night, there are concerts in town, and you can hear music coming from houses around the community playing their own songs. We also celebrate by playing different sports, doing art and sharing stories.
In the 1960s, pastoralists came and tried to take our land from us. They claimed the area that Gurindji traditionally lived on and stopped us from going hunting and fishing. But a man named Vincent Lingiari stood up with bravery and spoke very loud. He encouraged the Gurindji to take our land back so we could live in our own ways. The story gets told in the famous song, “From Little Things, Big Things Grow.”
In 1966, Vincent looked at his people and asked them to walk off to Wattie Creek with him. In 2025, we celebrate 50 years since Gurindji land was returned in 1975. We remember and thank our old people who did all those things so their ancestors could live peacefully in the future.
Ricco
Year 10
