The Shield and the Spear : The Kimberley Land Council.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fox, Joe.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aboriginal Australians Land tenure.

History.

Kimberley Land Council.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (304 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Broome : Magabala Books, 2022.

Summary:

** Shortlisted for WA Premier's Prize for Book of the Year 2023 ** '... you need an organisation like the KLC to be your shield and spear, to be able to cut through the bureaucracy to make change. To be able to protect things that are important to Aboriginal people in this region.' Wayne Bergmann, former CEO of the KLC In April 1978 leaders from Aboriginal Communities across the Kimberley met in the river bed at Old Halls Creek. At least 55 representatives attended, which closed with a request to the Noonkanbah Mob to invite all the Aboriginal Communities in the Kimberley to a Cultural Festival and meeting in May 1978, at which a new organisation - The Kimberley Land Council (KLC) - would be officially formed and launched. The KLC was formed as a political land rights organisation. Today it is the peak Indigenous body in the Kimberley region working with Aboriginal people to secure native title, conduct conservation and land management activities and develop cultural & economic business enterprises. The Shield and the Spear is mostly told through firsthand contributions from the people who were there. The reader is taken on a journey through historic Indigenous rights battles such as the Noonkanbah blockade in 1979, the formation of the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre (KALACC) and the Kimberley Language Resource Centre (KLRC) in 1984; the formation of Magabala Books in 1987; and the controversial James Price Point gas hub. Plus the many commercial negotiations facilitated by the KLC. Commissioned by the KLC, Fox uses a combination of interviews and eyewitness accounts; quotes from the KLC Newsletter; quotes taken from historic documents, speeches, recordings and meetings; and historical and contemporary photographs and illustrations. The book is roughly chronological and the reader hears unmediated accounts of what happened.

Contents:

Cover

Half title

About the Author

Title

Copyright

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

The shield and the spear

Telling the story

Notes

1 Our Country, invasion, dispossession

Country

Culture and language

Oral history and Western science

Old stories and new arrivals

The killing times: dispossession, massacre, forced relocation

Organised resistance

Ration stations

Missions and government camps

The station times

A fair go? … or 'GO!'

Walk-off

Telling our story

2 Fighting back: rights, land rights and politics

Too much worry ...

Referendum - recognition, rights and reality

Internal refugees

Politics, politicians and prison

Turkey Creek wine festival

Land, leases, excisions and diamonds

Circumstances collide

The Kimberley message

First step on the long road

3 Starting the Kimberley Land Council

Making it happen

Like a thunder when she roar

Your shield and spear

Bulldozer

The ground doesn't change

4 Noonkanbah!

Parochial clash, international showcase

The white man is mad

Oh yeah, it was scary!

They didn't blink

Support the Kimberley Land Council

Leadership emerges

5 Fearlessness for justice

So strong, so fast

Makarrata - land rights and treaty

Working for Countrymen

A man hasn't even got a home

Paganism, superstition, fear and darkness

CRA went around the corner

Things started to move

Love of the battle - early voices

Jalyirr story

6 Land, language, law and Culture

No, we're going to have Culture

Land can't be by itself

This meeting has made my heart glad

Keeping Culture strong - KALACC

Keeping language alive - KLRC

7 Leadership, vision and resolve

To live in dignity

A homeland movement

Old girl overseas

Govern our lives, control our destinies.

Treaty, bicentenary, black deaths

Local community, regional authority

Culture is written in the land - Crocodile Hole

We're sick of inquiries and consultation

Yirra

Our place, our future

Anyone can snap this?

From the fringes to the centre (edge of the desert, heart of the nation)

8 Land rights and Native Title

The land rights battle

Seaman inquiry, politics, miners

Rolling over for capitalism

Land rights off the agenda

Mabo and the end of

It's the fights you pick ...

This putrid Bill

Peace on the basis of Mabo

'That villain Tim Fischer' - Wik and the ten-point plan

Worrying for Country, missing it

Representing Traditional Owners

Pressure to think small

Evidence on Country

Get back Country

Not a halfway people

My sadness is over

9 Reclaiming Responsibility

Power over our lives

Building on traditional ownership

We closed those old wounds

No means no

The gas

Fake coconuts destroying our Country

We the one own this Country

The ripple effects

10 A voice for our mob

Together, we can shake the ground

Refugees in the Country of our ancestors

Policy, procedure, control, backbone

Another generation begins the cycle of poverty

'I've seen communities commit murder'

Getting inside the economy

We don't want to be kicked off our Country again

Traditional and enduring custodians of the land

Happy time ... celebrating achievements

That journey picked us all up

Reclaiming Culture and identity

A voice for our mob

11 Caring for Country

Passion and love for Country

Making a living from Country

The river has a right to life

Our living home - Indigenous Protected Areas

An ancient and powerful land - National Heritage listing

Rangers - our big success.

'Oh Nan, I feel so good you know. I'm out there doing something for the people'

12 Then, now, tomorrow

Without land, without Culture, we are nothing

People hiding behind the back door

The sky hasn't fallen in

Then and now

Like we bin build a shield

Dignity, integrity, strength

I love it in my heart

We made a big thing

Thanks and Acknowledgements

Credits

Blank Page.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Other Format:

Print version: Fox, Joe The Shield and the Spear

ISBN:

9781922613684

OCLC:

1334888289