The Extraordinary Life of a Stockman: Reflections on Aboriginal Australia's Untold Past
20:54Indigenous Australians, please be aware the following material contains the names and stories of Indigenous Australians who have died.
I recognise the traditional custodians of the land where these interviews were recorded, the Wakka Wakka, Jarowair and Barrumgum tribes, and where I live, work and study, the Turrbal people.
Peter Gray looks like every other older bloke at Kingaroy Woolies. He's unassuming, a little bit shy, and very slight. Get him talking, which admittedly is not easy, and you'll find Peter has had a life that can reveal something truly valuable about the history of Western Australia's Aboriginal people, and their troubled relationship with white Australians.
It was the beginning of winter in the Bunya Mountains when I visited Peter. The temperature was comfortable. Cardigan weather. Peter’s home on the other hand was like a furnace. The fireplace burns right around the clock on some days, but when you take one glance at Peter it’s not hard to understand why. With very little meat on his bones, his slender frame is evidence of a lifetime of hard work. And hard work, yakka, whatever, has been the most important thing to Peter throughout his life. I know, because he took my uncle in when he was 15 and turned him from wayward teen to a real-life stoic cowboy. But that's a whole different story.
What's interesting about Peter is that perhaps rare for the time when the following events took place, he judged everyone on their work ethic, despite holding unconscious bias.
Peter explains how it all began.
"I'm glad I did," she said, "because the boys in rural towns all too often found themselves on a bad track back then."
But that was nothing that Peter couldn't straighten out with what my uncle would say was a bit of "tough love". His kids, my cousins, have followed in my uncle's path and have made lives for themselves over west too, something they can thank Peter for, in addition to being called the weird country cousins by my city-raised brother and I. I digress.
Although Peter can reveal a wealth of knowledge about many aspects of Australia's history, the history of Indigenous Australians on rural cattle stations and in missions is not a popular history and certainly an under-studied field.
Early mornings, dust everywhere and on everything, and long days that melt into weeks; this was the a way of life for Australia's non-Indigenous stockmen. But, the comfort of the billy and some fresh camp bread in the evening by the fire was a relished creature comfort.
Peter began working at the age of 12, which was not uncommon for young people in rural Australia in the 1950s. My grandmother sent her son across the country to work for Peter in The Kimberley when he was just 15.
"I'm glad I did," she said, "because the boys in rural towns all too often found themselves on a bad track back then."
But that was nothing that Peter couldn't straighten out with what my uncle would say was a bit of "tough love". His kids, my cousins, have followed in my uncle's path and have made lives for themselves over west too, something they can thank Peter for, in addition to being called the weird country cousins by my city-raised brother and I. I digress.
Although Peter can reveal a wealth of knowledge about many aspects of Australia's history, the history of Indigenous Australians on rural cattle stations and in missions is not a popular history and certainly an under-studied field.
Stock Camps and Missions, 1960s
For an Aboriginal stockman, an outwardly-looking similar life was very different, especially when some had never experienced any contact with white Australians before. Peter describes the work and domestic roles in the video below.
The Bringing them Home Report was groundbreaking in drawing attention to the atrocities that the Aboriginal peoples of Australia endured for decades. While Peter sees the missions as providing education for the children and giving them food and clothing, the Bringing Them Home report shatters this narrative.
While the report is nation-wide, The Kimberley is mentioned 39 times. This was a region which was heavily complicit in the stolen generation.
"Professor Ernest Hunter surveyed a sample of 600 Aboriginal people in the Kimberley region of WA in the late 1980s. One-quarter of the elderly people and one in seven of the middle-aged people reported having been removed in childhood." – Bringing Them Home Report.
In 1960s Australia, Indigenous Australians were given a very small wage for work. Peter says when Aboriginal Australians came to work for him, they were given food, clothes, boots and a hat as well as a horse or mule to ride during the muster. They were taught either as children how to ride a horse if they grew up on local missions, or when they began work in the stock camps as teenagers or adults.
The team at the station would usually work for six weeks straight, with no such thing as a weekend or a day off. (It seems hard now, but it's a particularly hard life if you're getting paid next to nothing.) Their days were spent moving cattle from dusk until dawn, 'watering' them, 'mothering up' the calves who had lost their parents during the muster, smoking, and finally getting a short night's sleep before doing it all again the next day.
Peter remembers his Aboriginal mates fondly, reminiscing about his good mates Georgie Leopold and Peter Gardiner who have both since passed away. Georgie and Peter had the longest careers as stockmen with Peter, others would only last a matter of days.
"It's a hard life, it's hard yakka, and some people just can't get used to it," says Peter.
It's at this point I'd like to flag that there is unconscious bias in this opinion of Peter's. I wouldn't stick around in a job that paid next to nothing and worked me to the bone. Not to mention all of the complex cultural differences that exist.
Near Fossil Downs Station in The Kimberley, there was a mission camp for Aboriginal children.
According to Peter, the children were "educated and had the necessities of life provided to them". On school holidays the kids would visit their families who worked at Fossil.
While Peter sees this as a normal and okay, the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, the Bringing Them Home report released in 1995, recognises this as one of the processes of assimilation.
The Bringing them Home Report was groundbreaking in drawing attention to the atrocities that the Aboriginal peoples of Australia endured for decades. While Peter sees the missions as providing education for the children and giving them food and clothing, the Bringing Them Home report shatters this narrative.
While the report is nation-wide, The Kimberley is mentioned 39 times. This was a region which was heavily complicit in the stolen generation.
"Professor Ernest Hunter surveyed a sample of 600 Aboriginal people in the Kimberley region of WA in the late 1980s. One-quarter of the elderly people and one in seven of the middle-aged people reported having been removed in childhood." – Bringing Them Home Report.
Equal Pay: Liberation, Violence and Trouble
A turning point in the history of Aboriginal stockmen, particularly in the Kimberley region, was the introduction of equal wages. The mid- to late-60s saw Aboriginal stockmen start to protest against the inequality of wages and difficult work conditions, most famously in the Wave Hill 'walk-off' in the Northern Territory which saw more than 200 Aboriginal stockmen and their families take strike.
With Australia's policy of assimilation, Aboriginal people were expected to live like non-Indigenous Australians – but how could they afford to do so on meagre or no wages at all? Plus, did they want to live like the white man? No one cared. While equal wages was undeniably positive, it had an unprecedented effect that did not take into consideration any of the damage done, trauma, or cultural systems of Western Australia's Aboriginal people.
With Australia's policy of assimilation, Aboriginal people were expected to live like non-Indigenous Australians – but how could they afford to do so on meagre or no wages at all? Plus, did they want to live like the white man? No one cared. While equal wages was undeniably positive, it had an unprecedented effect that did not take into consideration any of the damage done, trauma, or cultural systems of Western Australia's Aboriginal people.
Historian Fiona Skyring stated that the introduction of equal wages in the Kimberley could be described as a disaster as it caused mass evictions and unemployment, which Peter attributes to station managers not being able to afford to employ Aboriginal workers anymore. It was therefore essentially an industry built on exploitation.
Read more from Fiona Skyring: Low Wages, Low Rents and Pension Cheques: The Introduction of Equal Wages in The Kimberley, 1968-1969.
At this time the cattle industry also experienced a period of change with advancements in technology such as the introduction of light aircraft and helicopters to the process of mustering, requiring less people on horseback. The cattle industry held steady by firing a majority of Aboriginal workers, which led to immense social issues for former Aboriginal stockmen and their families.
Read more from Fiona Skyring: Low Wages, Low Rents and Pension Cheques: The Introduction of Equal Wages in The Kimberley, 1968-1969.
At this time the cattle industry also experienced a period of change with advancements in technology such as the introduction of light aircraft and helicopters to the process of mustering, requiring less people on horseback. The cattle industry held steady by firing a majority of Aboriginal workers, which led to immense social issues for former Aboriginal stockmen and their families.
Where Do We Go Now?
Today Australia's Indigenous people experience a host of social issues far more severely than that of non-Indigenous Australians. A study by HealthInfoNet in partnership with Elizabeth Cowan University found that, in comparison to non-Indigenous Australians, Indigenous people:
- are younger when they have children and these children have a lower birth weight
- have a lower life expectancy
- are at a greater risk to a host of diseases
- are at a higher risk of mental health issues due to experiencing a higher number of stressors
- are twice as likely to be admitted to hospital for injury
- are more likely to be affected by disability
There are ongoing efforts to 'bridge the gap', such as the Western Australian Government's recent announcement to fund early intervention programs. But we know it's not enough.
Australia's Indigenous culture is still thriving
Shelley McKenzie, my mum (it's a personal story after all), and former council employee for the remote Aboriginal community of Numbulwar in the Northern Territory says the Nunggayinbala clan live life as they did before the white man came along.
"White man has given houses to live in, Coke to rot teeth and alcohol, which causes untold social problems, but the clan still hunts for food and lives a great authentic life," she said.
"For example they fish every day, hunt turtles in turtle season and dugong when the big winds come and hunt for red skin and young buffalo as well. They still perform their rituals. They are happy just being them.
"Most houses have no furniture and they sleep on the floor sometimes with thin mattresses and a blanket to cover them. And white people are shocked at how they live because it's not how we live. The people at Numbulwar are happy with no material possessions. They are truly happy. Wouldn't that be nice."
"For example they fish every day, hunt turtles in turtle season and dugong when the big winds come and hunt for red skin and young buffalo as well. They still perform their rituals. They are happy just being them.
"Most houses have no furniture and they sleep on the floor sometimes with thin mattresses and a blanket to cover them. And white people are shocked at how they live because it's not how we live. The people at Numbulwar are happy with no material possessions. They are truly happy. Wouldn't that be nice."
This incredible photoessay from the ABC of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Sydney's suburb of Redfern which is home to a large Aboriginal community shows the issue of the Indigenous people's status in Australian society is an ongoing struggle, from the perspective of those who live in cities as opposed to remote communities.
Opening the discussion through mediums such as social media helps to bridge the cultural gap and help non-Indigenous Australians to develop a better understanding of Indigenous culture.
Hopefully, recognition and appreciation of cultural differences will ensure that the mistakes of history are not made again – including by those 'trying to help' such as intervention from, as Peter would say, "do-gooders" in the city, the common denominator of those people being white Australians.
Peter retired from work in The Kimberley in his early 70s, and now lives a quiet life by himself on a retirement block in the Bunya Mountains region of Queensland.
Opening the discussion through mediums such as social media helps to bridge the cultural gap and help non-Indigenous Australians to develop a better understanding of Indigenous culture.
Hopefully, recognition and appreciation of cultural differences will ensure that the mistakes of history are not made again – including by those 'trying to help' such as intervention from, as Peter would say, "do-gooders" in the city, the common denominator of those people being white Australians.
Peter retired from work in The Kimberley in his early 70s, and now lives a quiet life by himself on a retirement block in the Bunya Mountains region of Queensland.
Peter's had an interesting life. And now that I've told his story for my grandma's sake, it's time for us to hear Indigenous voices.
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