Noonkanbah+-+Andrew

Andrew Mansour

** Noonkanbar ** The name Noonkanbar is freighted with meaning for the Yungngora people and their descendants, for the oil and gas and wider mining interests in Western Australia and resource access seekers Australia wide and their political supporters, for members of a Commonwealth Government concerned at that time to preserve Australia's international reputation, for Aboriginal people seeking and defending their land rights and for a cadre of Aboriginal activists energised and politicised by the events there in 1979 and 1980.

While Noonkanbar was many things for these diverse groups it was not a victory for land rights. Noonkanbar highlighted systemic failure of both State and Federal governments in dealing fairly with the interests of traditional owners and their communities (absent state based legislation equivalent to the //Northern Territory// //Land// //Rights Act (1976//)). The dispute brought into stark relief the polarising effect of politics as conducted by Sir Charles Court and his government who used the refusal of access by the Yungngora as a catalyst for confrontation on the wider question of resource development. In the politicisation of what was essentially an access dispute, a defensive culture was created at Federal level, culminating in the banning of the film "On Sacred Ground" from being shown and distributed at Australian embassies on grounds that it would harm Australia's image overseas. This was a final indignity, an almost comic playing out of Australian insecurity and double dealing on matter relative to land rights justice.

But Noonkanbar was a very important event in the lives of Aboriginal activists. It gave Rob Riley a national profile and heightened his sense of the continuing nature of Aboriginal dispossession, and introduced him to an emerging group of Aboriginal activists including Peter Yu who was then working with the Kimberly Land Council, and who both would in later years take leading positions with the KLC and figure in the emerging National Aboriginal Conference (NAC) and subsequent Indigenous representative bodies.

So not only was Noonkanbar a nationally and internationally significant dispute between government, mining interests and Aboriginal traditional owners but it was also a significant progenitor of Aboriginal activism and leadership thought the 80's and 90's.

Indigenous Resources

Resource 1: Fim Australia: On Sacred Ground. This film was originally a documentary about the work of the narrator Ribnga Green with various Kimberly communities recording the resettlement of former cattle stations by their traditional owners. This process included the Noonkanbar station by the Yungngora people. The story was overtaken by the Amax (a US based oil company) application to drill exploratory wells near Pea Hill on Noonkanbar. Pea Hill was one of a number of sacred sites on the property as mapped by the University of Western Australia. As the material accompanying the film on the ABC website note said, Noonkanbar "was a conflict between ways of seeing and using land"; the juxtaposition of European property law facilitating the exploitation of resources and Aboriginal law and religion. The film's impact was enhanced as it told the story without rancour or vehemence; the events and the words of the participants were compelling enough. The words of the Western Australian Minister for Cultural Affairs, Bill Grayden listened to by a group of traditional owners, patronising and yet devoid of understanding intoning as if to children "oil is a mineral. Petrol comes from oil. We need petrol for cars and trucks. You broke your agreement with us." finished the film and laid bare the moral frailty of the government position.

Resource 2: Photograph "The Blockade" at Nicky's Pool, Noonkanbar 1980. The photograph depicts a police arrayed and ready to remove the assembled people who with themselves and their vehicles sought to block the passage of drilling vehicles. The Aboriginal people are sitting quietly while the vehicles are being pushed off the road by a front-end loader. Subsequent to that photograph police moved to physically remove the Aborigines from the road. This appears to be a scene of passive resistance; there are no signs or placards and no movement among the people. This is juxtaposed to the scene in the film (Indigenous Resource 1) where the narrator describes a march together with placards that was staged for the attendant media representatives. The narrator informs us that the locals gave the press what they wanted to see, and that was a demonstration. While the narrator's tone was ironic, the necessity to communicate on terms accessible to broad media was not a lesson lost on the leadership at Noonkanbar. That lesson was that in order to gain wider support of indigenous and non indigenous people then the Western forms of protest demonstration would need to be adopted. Quentin Beresford's book on Rob Riley describes tension between the younger activists who were prepared to vigorously demonstrate and those of the old guard who, to them, appeared subservient and passive and, in my view, the photograph foretells of that tension.

Resource 3: KLC Newsletter Vol 1 No. 2 August 1979 (PDF) The News letter speaks of the events as they unfold at Nookanbar. The language is measured and seems intent on the passing on of information rather than presenting a polemical argument or a rallying cry for support. This tone is reflective of the tone of On Sacred Ground and can be contrasted to the barely disguised racism of the WA Government statements on the issue. Non indigenous resources Resource 4 Quentin Beresford's, Rob Riley: An Aboriginal Leader's Quest for Justice

This book provides a detailed exploration of the life of Robert Riley in the long term results in Noonkanbar. While the focus was obviously on Rob Riley chapter 5 of the book describes the political and legislative context of the Noonkanbar events. Noonkanbar was the flash point in a series of confrontations commencing with the bitterly contested 1977 state elections and the annulled results of the seat of Kimberley where stand over tactics were found to be used intimidating illiterate people to deprive them of their right to vote. Reference was made to the partisan political changes to the Western Australian Electoral Act in 1977 to disenfranchise illiterate voters and then again in 1979 to discourage enrolment of Aborigines by requiring their enrolment be witnessed by a JP or policemen. The fact that neither group were seen by Aborigines as "sympathetic to their cause" and indeed were chosen to intimidate and dissuade enrolment of Aborigines was compelling evidence of the failure of the political system to deliver outcomes for Aboriginal people. In that sense Noonkanbar represented the moment when Aboriginal people decided to confront government and access seekers in a political and not merely a proprietorial response to their land claims and history.

Resource 5 , Photo Land Council meeting Fitzroy Crossing.

This photograph depicts a number of Aboriginal people sitting in the river bed which in different circumstances was a process described as Patrick Dodson as a "Federation Rules" which meant being in the bush and sitting on the ground. The Federation referred to was the Federation of Land Councils to which Rob Riley's NAC formed an operational alliance whichsubsequently emerged as the Aboriginal Land Rights Steering Committee. This committee and its progenitors were clearly informed by the Noonkanbar struggle and Rob Riley's involvement in it as representative of the Aboriginal legal services

Resource 6 Discussion with Peter Yu April 2011. Peter was at Noonkanbar in his capacity as a field officer of the Kimberley Land Council. When asked by me about his view of the significance of Noonkanbar he said it had significant local, regional, national, and international ramifications. However, the events at Noonkanbar, he said, must be seen against a complex set of legal, social and historical circumstances of that time. These included: (a) the equal wages decisions (1966) and implementation in the Kimberley in 1972 (b) the heated local political climate after the 1977 annulled election. (c) the 'walk off' of Noonkanbar and subsequent poor social outcomes at Fitzroy Crossing and the return to the station (d) the Court government's use of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 and the failure of that legislation to protect Aboriginal interests.

Resource 7

The National Times article.

This article highlights the sensitivities of the Commonwealth Governments to international criticism in the wake of events at Noonkanbar. That it was prepared to suppress the showing of a film its agency had financed emphasised the competing tensions between paternalism and fear that marked Commonwealth Governments response to the land rights issues.

**Noonkanbar** 1. On Sacred Ground. Documentary film. Film Australian (1980). Retrieved 20/4/2011 from[] 2. Photograph: The Blockade, Micky's pool, Noonkanbar, August 1980. Michael Gallagher reproduced from page 112 of Quentin Beresford's: Rob Riley on Aboriginal Leader's Quest for Justice. Aboriginal Studies Press. Canberra. 2006 3. Kimberley Land Council Newsletter Volume 1 No.2 August 1979. Retrieved 27/4/2011: [|__http://www.abc.net.au/aplacetothink/pdf/OSG_DFF_20.pdf__] 4. Quentin Beresford, Rob Riley: An Aboriginal Leader's quest for justice. Aboriginal Studies Press. Canberra, 2006. 5. Photograph: Land Council Meeting, Fitzroy Crossing, W.A. October 1979. Retrieved 27/4/2011: []. 6. Discussion with Peter Yu 29/4/11 7. Press article: The National Times, July 5 to 11, 1981page 5: "Street Bans film on Blacks".
 * Indigenous Resources**
 * Non Indigenous Resources**