Vincent Lingiari addressing the media after Prime Minister Gough Whitlam officially returns Aboriginal land at Wattie Creek, Northern Territory, August 1975

On 23 August 1966, 200 Gurindji stockmen, domestic workers and their families – led by Vincent Lingiari – initiated strike action at Wave Hill station in the Northern Territory. Negotiations with the station owners, the international food company Vestey Brothers, broke down, leading to a seven-year dispute. In August 1975, Prime Minister Whitlam came to Daguragu and ceremonially returned a small portion of Gurindji land to the traditional owners by pouring a handful of soil into Vincent Lingiari’s hand with the words, ‘Vincent Lingiari, I solemnly hand to you these deeds as proof, in Australian law, that these lands belong to the Gurindji people’. This is a photograph taken during that ceremony.