Overview

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.

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9781760508562

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Thomas Mayor 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 in the Darwin community of Torres Strait Islanders. In high school, Thomas’s English teacher suggested he should become a writer. He didn’t think then that he would become one of the first ever Torres Strait Islander authors to have a book published for the general trade. Thomas became a wharf labourer from the age of seventeen and a union official for the Maritime Union of Australia in his early thirties. Thomas found his voice on the wharves, gaining the skills of negotiation and organising and applying those skills to advancing the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.  Thomas is a signatory to the Uluru Statement from the Heart and a tireless campaigner for a constitutionally enshrined First Nations voice, and a Makarrata Commission for truth-telling and agreement-making or treaties. His previous books include Finding the Heart of a Nation and Finding our Heart, along with a book about fatherhood from First Nations perspectives called Dear Son. Rosie Smiler is a 39-year-old Gurindji woman, a twin with Lisa Smiler and a granddaughter of the great Gurindji leader, Vincent Lingiari. Rosie is a teacher’s assistant for Years 3 and 4 at the tiny primary school in the Gurindji community of Kalkarindji. Rosie speaks Gurindji, Walpiri and Mudburra Aboriginal languages, as well as Gurindji Kriol and English. She describes herself as minyiti, or shy, though she is also very brave, just like her grandfather was. Samantha Campbell is an illustrator and graphic designer based in Darwin, Northern Territory. Samantha is descended from the Dagoman people from Katherine, and as a child lived in remote Aboriginal communities across the Top End. Samantha studied graphic design in Melbourne and worked as a freelance graphic designer before illustrating her first children's book, Alfred’s War (written by Rachel Bin Salleh). Alfred’s War was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and Speech Pathology Australia’s Book of the Year Awards. Samantha’s other books include Brother Moon, by Maree McCarthy Yoelu, and Aunty’s Wedding, by Miranda Tapsell and Joshua Tyler. Samantha enjoys illustrating with a range of different mediums in many styles.

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