The Pilbara strike and the forgotten story of James Wigley and the Strelley mob

James Wigley’s painting, Family at Roeburne, with its crimson dirt and verdant slopes, makes the Pilbara landscape immediately recognisable. The subjects may not be immediately recognisable, but they were participants in the Pilbara strike - a pivotal, often forgotten, chapter in local Aboriginal history that influenced the landmark 1967 referendum. The Pilbara strike – also known as the Aboriginal Pilbara strike – was the first ever industrial walk off by Indigenous Australians. During the mid-twentieth century Aboriginal minors worked under brutal conditions at stations across the Pilbara. They were offered minimal pay in comparison to white counterparts and endured long working hours. The walk off was initiated by Indigenous leaders Dooley Bin Bin, Peter Coppin and Clancy McKenna who demanded a fair wage of 30 shillings a week, as well as land rights. Peter Coppin likened his experience working at the stations to being treated no better than an animal. “We lived no better than the cattle, but we worked all day for the right to even do that,” he said. “We were skinny people back then, and we lived through plenty of starvation times.” On May 1, 1946 eight hundred Aboriginal miners walked off the job across 27 stations in the Pilbara region. Most of the strikers never returned to work and their demands were never met. The strikers established their own camps and settlements across the Pilbara. They started mining and pearl-shelling ventures that operated independently from government oversight. Non-Indigenous activist Don McLeod played a crucial role in fostering business and sales for the strikers, living in several camps in the Port Hedland area throughout the 1950’s. Melbourne based realist painter James Wigley heard of the movement and wrote to McLeod asking if he could assist in pearl shelling and paint the Aboriginal strikers, according to University of West Australia Art historian professor Darren Jorgenson. Wigley first arrived at the settlements in 1957. Professor Jorgenson’s research uncovered quotes by Monty Hale, one of the early strikers, who was involved in pearl-shelling activity near Condon, on the Pilbara coast. “A walypia who came there, Jim Wigley, made us a boat which had an engine,” he said. Wigley made a significant contribution to the camp’s economy through his active role in pearl shelling. He continued painting Aboriginal strikers, with the emotional weight of their struggles overwhelming him at times. “Wigley witnessed the harassment that the strike mob were experiencing and the tension they were living with, as they carried on the strike in the face of opposition from non-Aboriginal people,” Professor Jorgenson said. Wigley described the expressionist style of his works as a way of relating to his subjects, including their vulnerability. “You can’t just observe people, you have to relate to them to paint them,” he said. “You have to relate yourself to avoid being too romantic.” Wigley later returned to live in Melbourne to host art exhibitions and sell his work. Around 1969-1970, using money earned from their independent businesses, the strikers bought Strelley Station, 64km south-east of Port Hedland, where a more permanent community was established. Wigley returned to the Pilbara to to live once more with the now self-titled Strelley Mob. . During this period he performed historic work, preserving crucial parts of the Mob’s cultural history through his painting. As Strelley Station’s population grew, the community became more self-reliant, and set up their own school. Today, Strelley School remains Australia’s oldest independent Aboriginal community–controlled school. The locals asked Wrigley to operate the schools printing press, and he began illustrating several children’s books the school produced. According to Wigley’s son, Julian, running the printing press for the Strelley school, and illustrating dream time stories told to him by Aboriginal children, was one of the greatest chapters in his father’s life. “His real joy, I really do believe, was the printing press period when he was doing the multicoloured books, when he was talking to kids and doing those initial picture books,” he said. Professor Jorgenson says the children’s books Wigley illustrated and produced represent an integral part of Australian history - that is, the “intersection of settler and Aboriginal culture.” For the art historian, research into James Wigley and the Strelley mob reveals a different side of WA’s history. “The true story of Australia’s north-west isn’t to be found in the story of Tom Price, or great mining giants. The real story is in its itinerant labourers,” he said. “The more interesting lives were spent by people on the ground and those stories, particularly Indigenous history stories, haven’t been told.” Wigley’s paintings and illustrations immortalise the resilience of the Strelley mob, while their dedication to self-determination continues to inspire the pursuit of Indigenous land rights. According to the former Chair of the Council of Reconciliation, Senator Pat Dodson, the actions of the striker mob formed “an important and inspiring milestone in the national battle for justice, rights, equality and recognition of Indigenous people.” James Wigley’s paintings are available for viewing at the Strelley mob exhibition at Curtin University’s John Curtin Gallery in Perth.