CANBERRA, ACT, Aug. 16 -- The Prime Minister of Australia issued the following media release:
The Albanese Labor Government recognises 50 years since the Gurindji land handback, a turning point in the struggle for Aboriginal land rights.
On 16 August 1975, Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam poured soil into Vincent Lingiari's hands, during an official handover ceremony which formally granted the Gurindji people a lease to a parcel of land at Wave Hill cattle station.
It would become an iconic image of land rights and a defining moment in Australian history.
Almost a decade earlier, on 23 August 1966, 200 Gurindji, Mudburra and Warlpiri stockmen, domestic workers and their families, led by Vincent Lingiari, had taken a stand.
They led a...