A Movement from the Heart

I was born and bred on Larrakia country, which is Darwin. My father is a Torres Strait Islander. He moved from Thursday Island to the Northern Territory when he was 17 years old to work at Frances Creek Mine. Torres Strait Islanders were famous for their work ethic. They built the Pilbara railway in world record time. My dad was from that generation of Islanders, a really hard worker. He fell in love with my mother in the NT and ended up staying there. My mother’s father was a Polish refugee.

So I grew up in Darwin, and I became a wharfie when I was 17 years old. That’s where I really learned about unity and the importance of structure behind a union. When I was 20, the ’98 Patricks dispute happened. I was driving to work one morning and heard on the radio that we’d all been sacked. It was a huge