The Kimberley Land Council Newsletter. Vol. 1, No.1. January 1979. [Rare first issue]

Kununurra: Kimberley Land Council, 1979. First edition. A4 size, folding, b&w illus, pp 16. Library stamp top left corner of first page, short tear to margins not affecting text, scattered light marks first page. Very good condition.

The FIRST issue of the Kimberley Land Council Newsletter. The contents include the following : Front page: a quote from Mark Moora, calling on people to come to Noonkenbah fror the first KLC meeting, along with a photograph of a crowd watching Aboriginal dancers, probably at that first meeting. Moora says: "I'm calling the people from everywhere to hear my voice. [...] we're going to try to bring these things back for our country [...] to give us more power." Second and third page: records of the first meeting, with quotes from speakers from the more than 30 Kimberley communities attending, and a list of the six aims of the KLC. Includes photo of the gathering, with Galawurry Yunupingu [Yolngu man and well-known activist] speaking. Fourth page: A report on the situation at the pastoral station at Gordon Downs, where "the camp itself is abysmal, even by normal standards", workplace injuries are ignored, and Aboriginal people are "being starved off the station", "unwelcome guests of an English Lord in their own country." Fifth page: text of a speech by Frank Chulung, Chairman of the KLC, to the Aboriginal Land Needs Conference in August 1978. Chulung spoke about the dispossession from traditional lands: "The land to which people in the Kimberley wish to return is alienated land. It is held by white men under pastoral leases, made secure by white men's law." Sixth and seventh page: results from a meeting at Wawinde near Halls Creek, where people "were strong and full of ideas to fight." Speakers included Paddy Morlunbun from Mowanjum: "You know it's a pleasure to mingle one another - although we come from different languages, different ways of living, different tribal dances, different dreamtimes. [...] [But all people] need the voice from the the people - us people from our voices, like a thunder when she roar - the rain fall." Mark Moora [again] from Balgo spoke about sacred sites. "Pintbi, Pitjatjantjara, Wongajunga - we all got the law. [...] It's got meaning, it's got history - and some are deadly. You touch that and you go cripple. A couple of years ago at Broome, the mining people came. There is a place the old people sing about in their language. Mining companies just missed it. That secret area.They said, the old people, they said that man did this and that to us. They sing him into that ground now, that one. And just like that he's dead. Secret land we're talking about. [...] Tell you any whiteman that lft up that hill - he'll go to hell." The speakers are followed by the appointment of the members of the executive of the KLC, with names and the communities they are from. The eight official resolutions of the land council are listed. There is also a photo of Balgo men at the meeting. Eighth page: "The miners come to the Kimberley". The details of mining companies arriving at each of six different places in the Kimberley, including the destruction and theft of sacred artefacts at Noonkenbah. "The miners are at the moment gearing up for a grand invasion of the Kimberleys, country that until now has not known large scale exploitation. [...[ This is the newest front. The Court Government will be just as relentless as Bjelkes. There is no reason that people here won't resist just as strongly!!". Ninth page: reports from the third meeting of the KLC, Fitzroy and Margaret River Junction, and Executive Meeting, Broome. With photograph of three named Aboriginal men at "Non-Nuclear WA Rally" in Perth in December 1978. Tenth and eleventh page: "Charlie Court does a Bjelke Petersen." Detailed discussion of three significant legal acts: the Amendments to the Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority Act, the New Mines Bill and the Electoral Act. "Just like Bjelke-Petersen in Queensland, the Court in Western Australia is determined to stifle a growing Aboriginal movement by the most brutal and cynical means. [...] The first two [acts] strive to protect the poor helpless mining companies from selflish Aborigines who mightn't want to play host to the miners. The third is to defend the Court Government from the terrible notion that Aborigines might use their considerable voting power against the Liberals." The section on the Electoral Act, referring to the 1977 state election, quotes the statement from the Liberal candidate, and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Alan Ridge: "It was a degrading experience to have a campaign amongst the Aborigines to the extent I did and it offended me to know that while I was concentrating my efforts on these simple people I was neglecting more informed and intelligent section of the community." The eleventh page also includes an advertisement for an anthropologist to work for the KLC, and a photograph of Alfie Deakin and Ben Ward. Twelfth and thirteenth page: a report from Lamboo Station, including Aboriginal efforts to buy it. Details of land councils working together at Mimili in South Australia, in, Darwin, and at the "Non-Nuclear WA " rally in Perth (includes photo of Frank Chulung and others). A report on police-Aboriginal relations ("the seminar heard repeated allegations of police brutality [...] the situation rivalled that of South Africa.). Finally a visit to Perth fringe-dwellers, in which the KLC delegation visited the Guildford camp of the Swan River Aboriginal group, and were told of the plan to move on to Heirisson Island the next day. The delegation had hoped to meet with government representatives at Heirisson but they were unavailable. Labor polliticians attended the meeting, and were called upon "to collaborate with Aboriginal groups now in formulating a precise piece of land rights legislation that drew on the best aspects of the NT and SA Land Rights Legislation". Includes a photograph of seven men from the KLC and from Perth. Fourteenth page: a report on the KLC's submission to the Environmental Protection Authority on their 'System 7 Project' for national parks and nature reserves in the Kimberleys, with statements form some of the communities involved. Fifteenth page: a report on the Ord River Irrigation Area Review, and in particular the disregard of the Mirriwung people. The chairman of Moongung Darwung Council (Gulmirr) wrote to Sir Norman Young to describe the feelings of the Mirriwung people. "You must understand that the river that the white people call the Ord had as its real name "Cununurra'; the land that is now under the waters of the dam’s and irrigation channels belongs to the Mirriwung people and they to it - left to them by their ancestors." Another message was sent by cassette tape to the inquiry, from Bulla Billingking, a Mirriwung elder. This page also includes a photograph of Aboriginal men dancing, holding ceremonial shields. Sixteenth page: a summary of the first meetings of the KLC, with a mention of cassette tape versions being sent out to Aboriginal communities. A paragraph on a film made for UK TV about the activities of the CRA Mining Co. on Aboriginal Land. And a paragraph on the "150th Anniversary Celebrations!?!?!?!". "We are told that there is to be a re-enactment of Forrest's expedition up the Fitzroy Valley, the first invasion of the Kimberleys, to celebrate white W.A.'s 150th birthday. We only hope it is not planned to do the re-enactment in full detail, massacres and all.". This first issue of the Kimberley Land Council newsletter is a unique and important document. It is a significant reminder of issues in the 1970s which continue in Western Australia and Australia to this day. Item #106513

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