In 1946, Aboriginal Workers in Western Australia Struck Against Racist Hyperexploitation
Twentieth-century Aboriginal workers laboring for sheep and cattle stations in Western Australia’s Pilbara region endured conditions comparable to slavery. In 1946, they walked off the job — and founded the modern land rights movement.
The Pilbara strike was the first strike organized by Aboriginal people, and both marked a turning point in their struggle for labor and land rights and laid a foundation for decades of indigenous organizing and resistance. (Fairfax Media via Getty Images)
On May 1, 1946, several hundred Aboriginal stockmen stopped work across two dozen sheep and cattle stations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia (WA). It marked the beginning of the Pilbara strike — also known as the Pilbara walk-off — which continued for three years. The strike was so well organized and coordinated that it stunned and infuriated white pastoralists and the WA state government. Indeed, it was also the first strike organized by Aboriginal people, and both marked a turning point in their struggle for labor and land rights and laid a foundation for decades of indigenous organizing and resistance.
Many different Aboriginal nations and language groups took part in the strike, including the Ngarla, Nyamal, and Kariyarra traditional owners of the Port Hedland and Marble Bar areas, as well as Nyangumarta, Mangarla, Warnman, and Western Desert speakers. As Nyangumarta has become a lingua franca in the region, Aboriginal people in the Pilbara refer to themselves as marrngu, the Nyangumarta word for person.
Coerced Labor in the Pilbara
Coerced Aboriginal labor was integral to the development of pastoralism in WA, which was the result of the state’s immense size, sparse population, and the limited supply of convict labor. This fact was never concealed. For example, in 1888, pastoralist and future WA premier Sir John Forrest stated:
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