Williams, Kevin --- "Maureen and George" [1997] IndigLawB 34; (1997) 4(1) Indigenous Law Bulletin 17

• Maureen And George

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Maureen and George

by Kevin Williams

In 1949, an Aboriginal woman, Maureen Stanley of the Wakka Wakka, whose traditional land in the Eidsvold/Gayndah area was first squatted by pastoralist in the mid 1800s, went to work on Alroy Station outside of Longreach in central western Queensland. She had been working as a domestic since she was ten years of age. There, she met George Williams, who was working on the property as a stockman. They took off together and went fencing with one of Maureen’s brothers.

For several years, between 1950 and 1958, George, Maureen, uncle Kevin, and occasionally other blackfellas, went from station to station fencing pastoral leases. Most of this time was spent living in a tent. Maureen had three children during this period.

It was a hard life. There was at least one occasion where they were not paid by the property owner for work done. As Maureen said, 'Some of the cow cockies treated us well, but others treated us like slaves, little better than dogs'. According to her, there was never any doubt as to the relationship between the pastoralist and the Aboriginal workers: 'They were the masters and we were the servants'. All of Maureen's brothers, uncles, and aunts worked for pastoralists, and those still alive attest to what she says about their treatment while working on the cattle and sheep stations.

George's father, a stockman, was gored by a bull, killed in a cattle stampede when George was six months old. I remember him telling me a story many years ago about working as a stockman on a property up on the Queensland and Northern Territory border before World War II (the name of the station I do not recall). He, along with a couple of other stockmen, were pushing cattle into the stockyards, when the white head stockman started flogging one of the young Aboriginal stockmen with a whip, because he was too slow in moving the cattle. George said he rode up to the whitefella and knocked him off his horse. He then immediately left the property, went bush and walked overland into Urandangie where the local copper told him to get out of town. He said that if he had stayed on the property at the time, he would have been lynched.

Maureen and George are my parents and I was one of those three children who lived in that tent. They are still together; he is 80 and she is 68. He suffered a stroke in 1991 and she looks after him.

A constant theme in the the too few discussions I've had with George about working as a stockman has been how badly the blackfella was treated. He would say, 'You will never be a slave like me. They used the poor old blackfella'.

After the Mabo [No. 2] decision was handed down, Mum asked me what it meant. I explained that finally the whitefella law had recognised that blackfellas had property rights. I recall her saying at the time that this was strange since it had always been blackfella land. When the Wik judgment was handed down she also asked me what it meant. I told her that the High Court recognised that the native title, which had been acknowledged in the Mabo (No. 2) judgment, could co-exist with pastoral leases. I explained the English property law notion of fencing the land in order to claim an interest in that land. She thought it ironic George out there digging post holes with a crowbar and shovel to put up fences so a group of whitefellas could claim land.

At the same time, she was also concerned that a lot of people out there weren't going to like the Wik decision, because they already think blackfellas get too much. She said, 'They don't know for how long blackfellas were treated like dogs. Pastoralists made their living on the back of blacks'.

The Wik decision, history, reconciliation and recognition of the rights of Aboriginal peoples (alongside the rights of every other Australian) are critical issues as we head towards the year 2000.

I do not subscribe to the Prime Minister, John Howard's, view of history that we should look forward and not back. And I am certainly not comfortable and relaxed. The reality of what happened to Aboriginal people in the pastoral industry needs to be told and re-told to all Australians. Perhaps, then a generosity of spirit will prevail and the general population will recognise that Aboriginal people also have a right to take their place as equals alongside pastoralists and every other Australian.

The Wik decision does little to ameliorate the plight of Aboriginal people. It merely recognises that native title can co-exist with pastoral leases. The challenge is to transform this ideal into a reality for people like Maureen and George.