Who they were
Lingiari was a leader of the Gurindji people who worked on a cattle station in the Northern Territory. In 1966 he led the workers off the station in protest at poor conditions and low pay — the Wave Hill walk-off.
What they did
The protest grew into a demand for the return of their traditional land and lasted nine years. In 1975 Prime Minister Gough Whitlam poured earth into his hand to mark the symbolic return of part of that land.
Legacy
The episode was a turning point in the Indigenous land rights movement in Australia. Lingiari is remembered as a symbol of that struggle.