Hardie Grant
Freedom Day by Thomas Mayo & Rosie Smiler (Hard Back)
Freedom Day by Thomas Mayo & Rosie Smiler (Hard Back)
When many voices are joined together, with courage, change can happen.
In 1966, more than two hundred courageous Aboriginal people walked off the Wave Hill Cattle Station in the Northern Territory. Led by Vincent Lingiari, these stockmen and their families were walking together to fight for equal pay and land rights.
Exquisitely illustrated and designed, this non-fiction picture book brings a landmark historical event to a new generation. Many people have seen the iconic photograph of Gough Whitlam pouring a handful of red soil into the hands of Vincent Lingiari – a symbol of the legal transfer of Gurindji land back to the Gurindji people – and recognise this as a key moment in the ongoing land rights movement. Freedom Day delves into the events that led up to this moment, and makes a rallying cry for the things that still need to change in its wake. Thomas Mayor co-authors this book with Rosie, Vincent Lingiari’s granddaughter, to bring this vital story to life. The story has been written in close consultation with the Lingiari family.
About The Author
Thomas Mayo is a Torres Strait Islander man born on Larrakia country in Darwin. As an Islander growing up on the mainland, he learned to hunt traditional foods with his father and to island dance from the Darwin community of Torres Strait Islanders. In high school, Thomas’s English teacher suggested he should become a writer.
Rosie Smiler is a Gurindji woman and assistant teacher at Kalkaringi School. With Thomas Mayo, she co-authored Freedom Day: Vincent Lingiari and the Story of the Wave Hill Walk-Off in 2021. Rosie has worked on many Gurindji and Gurindji Kriol language projects, including the ‘Electro-Magnetic perception in Gurindji people’ project (in collaboration with Professor Felicity Meakins at the University of Queensland and Professor Joe Kirschvink and other researchers from Caltech in Los Angeles), the Kunpulu (Sawfish) project with the Murnkurrumurnkurru rangers, and the Karu Kamparnup (Treating Babies with Termite Mound) dot-motion animation project, which was inspired by Tamarra: A Story of Termites on Gurindji Country.
ISBN: 9781760508562
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