The central issue in the struggle for civil rights is undoubtedly landrights...unless we get landrights back to the people, we cannot go in any direction. We are in limbo until they settle this issue and it must be settled so the Aborigines can develop a policy of self determination.

The Aborigines want to live outside the main—stream of Australian society. ... They want to emerge and to live according to their own ideals and ideas with the maintenance of the tribal system, and all that goes with it.

The main enemies in establishing self-determination are the government which is so short sighted it is not funny and the apathy of the public. We are in a racist country... to most Australians we are no more than a nuisance. In the countryside they would like to put us on an island out of their way. They do not even think of the land as ever having belonged to the Aborigine. And the big miners, the Beef Barons and other industry. But the 5th generation Aussie no longer owns the land either. He is also governed from outside the country. Whats stolen once will be stolen again. It has got so bad that a group of people have now got together and formed Australian Heritage a Company to buy Australias land, to keep ownership in Aussie. I serve on the board of directors, along with John Grey Gorton and others. It was formed to try and prevent the land-grab.

The main causes of the most classic examples of discrimination, were the beef barons. In the olden days the white man came in and took a land block... that also entitled him to the tribesmen living on that land... he could and did enslave them to work the land. People like the Vestey Bros. who have been in the country for 50 years, that is how they got rich.. they own 40,000 square miles and they pay the Federal Govt 50cents a year per square mile.

Recently legislation has come in that provides for the equal pay of Aboriginal stockmen. That happened about two years ago and now the Gurinje people pulled the young stockmen together and they are standing by them and demanding equal pay. They demand a guarantee in writing.