Adventures with Agitators

By Paul Richards

Adventures with Agitators is a tribute to the resilience, determination, patience and tolerance of the Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders of Queensland.

In a series of short yarns about their battles in the justice and political systems, this book exposes the cruelty and hypocrisy of the ruling elite of Australia in pursuing policies of segregation and marginalisation. While Australia pointed the finger at South Africa, it maintained the same policies for our Indigenous peoples.

The book is not a history, a biography or a legal or anthropological text. It is an easy read for those wanting to understand the recent past. The author has had the advantage of being privy to their tragedies and dramas – as well as their humour and humanity.

The word “agitator” was applied politically and judicially to any of them who sought justice. In a celebrated High Court case involving Percy Neal, Justice Lionel Murphy opined that, without agitators, “there would be no advance towards civilisation”.

These are stories of the adventures of these brave agitators, to share with people of good heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Jan 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781922261298

Paul Richards

Paul Richards was born in Brisbane and taught by an education system that ignored the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history of Queensland.As a law student, he wrote and directed in radical amateur theatre, which led to a chance meeting in 1968 with a powerful Nunukul family who educated him in that hidden history of Queensland.Their revelations of the appalling treatment of Indigenous people caused him to engage in a career spanning half a century in the pursuit of their civil rights and land rights. Initially, he assisted the Brisbane Tribal Council, black theatre and the Black Panther Party. That led to an involvement in the foundation of the Aboriginal Legal Service in 1972.In the following years he provided legal advice and representation to Indigenous people throughout Queensland in many aspects of the legal system. The later years of his career involved the pursuit of native title rights, which gave some recognition and rights to the First Nations of Queensland.Retiring in 2015, he then began recording these significant stories of his experience in those battles.

Book preview

ADVENTURES WITH AGITATORS

Stories from Indigenous Australia

Paul Richards

This is an IndieMosh book

brought to you by MoshPit Publishing

an imprint of Mosher’s Business Support Pty Ltd

PO BOX 147

Hazelbrook NSW 2779

https://www.indiemosh.com.au/

Copyright 2019 © Paul Richards

All rights reserved

Cover photograph of the author taken at the Brisbane watch-house on the night of the Rosalie police riot, 1986.

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Disclaimer

Although the author has made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

ATSI warning

What others are saying about the book

List of photos

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

PART ONE Early encounters

1. The Nunukul of Minjerribah

Oodgeroo

Vivian

Moongalba

Denis

2. Brisbane Tribal Council

Pastor Don Brady

Steve and Pam Mam

The Watson family

Don Davidson

Road trip to Cherbourg, 1971

Free the blacks – smash the Act

Black theatre

Black Panthers

Special Branch

3. The Brisbane scene

DAIA demo

Other demos

Agitation for legal aid

Springbok demos

Student conference

Pig patrols

4. The ALS in Queensland

First contest in court

Opening the doors

Firsts

Continuing struggle

The Indigenous prison

Defeating a dodgy landlord

Attacking the probation office

Attacking the Department of Social Security

Being the families’ legal service

Someone gave me a white baby

Problems with police

Verbals

Troubles in the west – St George

St George again – many years later

Juveniles, glue and graffiti

A big state

PART TWO Working in communities

5. The Torres Strait Islands

The missionaries and culture

Learning from friends

Interpreters

Cultural cohesion

Customary-law adoptions

Visiting

The costume changer

Court

An unusual assault

The church lease and the island council

Beyond Thursday Island

6. Cherbourg

Test case on alcohol regulation

Frightening a judge

Field officer Charlie Renouf

The drunks parade

Opening an office in Murgon

Juveniles, the next generation

How to put down the opposition

Banishment

Even the sportsmen had to be put down

Tragic consequences

Petticoat Lane and the no true bill

The sympathetic judge

A Cherbourg wedding

The gap year

PART THREE Heading north

7. Agitators of the north

Crab lunch with Yarrabah elders

Relocating to Cairns

Great companionship with visitors

A flying lawyer service

Cooktown

Normanton

Getting to know the locals

The beneficiary of the door

An escape from custody

Getting the land back

Mareeba

A dedicated field officer

Saving Mossman Gorge

Murder at Mossman

The Weipa lockup

A bad white guy leads us to a great trip

8. Going on country at Yarrabah

Yarrabah, home of the Gungangi and others

9. Yarrabah legal cases

Percy Neal officially recognised as an agitator

Neals versus the system

Rigging council elections

Gurabana frustrated by wrong legal advice

The bird eggs case

10. Stories of Yarrabah

Joining the tourists

Income from tourism

Mediation over territory

Better than a maritime surveyor

Defending the pub

A non-drinker loses it

Compensation for a courthouse stuff-up

Stolen dance

Making the cop an Anti-Claus

A special place

PART FOUR Roving the state

11. Some exciting projects

Beyond the Act – FAIRA

Aurukun

Cunnumulla

Thursday Island

Darnley Island

Next stop no entry

Palm Island

The crime against the people of Mapoon

Observations about the survey

Result

12. Bapu Mamoos – a very different project

PART FIVE Punishment and prejudice

13. Government services

The criminal justice system

Magistrates were not lawyers

Magistrates – words of wisdom?

Cops caught lying

Lazy cops

There were good police too

14. Racism causes crime and suffering

The battle with the bikies

Corrective services

A Woodford dog

Another dog, another prisoner, same jail

A tragic death through callous neglect

The theme from Prisoner

Jail rapes

The health system: Death by stereotype

Lazy doctor

Gradual progress

Non-Aboriginal health professionals

PART SIX Policies, politics and apologies

15. Civil – bureaucrats and business

Stealing from the poor

Robbing a war veteran

They thought she would never know

Many others

Preventing students from getting an education

Using racism against racism

The encyclopedia salesman

Ripping off the big petrol companies

Innovative ideas not acceptable

The white-shoe brigade and the preschool

The loss of a multimillion-dollar building

Saving a bora ring on the Gold Coast

The perfect defamation case

A defamation defence

Exercising civil rights

16. Segregation, discrimination and strategies

Award wages

Discrimination by stereotype

With mates at a pub

And in Cairns

And in Brisbane

A billionaire’s Christmas

Corporations

Some curious political items

The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody

The children inquiry

Meeting the deputy premier

Meeting a future prime minister

Getting bad advice

PART SEVEN Footy clubs and feral police

17. Brisbane Natives Football Club

A minor confrontation

All Blacks football carnivals

Making a fool of myself

The manager who would not pay fines

18. The Rosalie police riot

Another attack

A downer

My bad

Footy mentors and ALS liaison

PART EIGHT With spirit and tolerance

19. Good spirits in the face of adversity

How I innocently received stolen fish

A couple of useful observations

Being on the other side

Growled by Oodgeroo

Even in the lockup and at court

Even with double adversity

20. Working with wonderful people

The triumph of the spirit

PART NINE Debunking terra nullius

21. Native title

General principles

Identifying the claim area

Connection

Identifying the group

Disputes

Queensland south of Townsville

The court process

Extinguishment

Prescribed body corporate

Treaty

22. The Kullilli Native Title Determination

23. Looking back, looking forward

About the author

Copyright statement

Dedicated to the Memory of

Vivian Charles Walker

This book contains the names and images of some Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders who have died. They are included for their importance to history and to the future.

What others are saying about the book

Adventures with Agitators is a must-read for all Australians and should be a mandatory set text and examinable resource for all law students at every tertiary institution in the nation. Paul’s fearless legal advocacy throughout all of his adult working life for the most marginalised people of this nation is a reflection of himself as an individual and provides an unambiguous view through the window of Australia’s collective failings in its treatment of the First Australians.

—Dr Stephen Hagan

Stephen Hagan is a proud Kullilli traditional owner from far south-west Queensland. He is a family man, former senior public servant, diplomat, entrepreneur, National NAIDOC Person of the Year (2006), award-winning author and filmmaker, and passionate advocate for First Nations peoples.

____________________________

The 1970s and 1980s were heady times for anyone working in Aboriginal affairs, particularly in the legal area. Paul Richards did this with aplomb and earned the trust of those around him. This is evidenced in the decades of work in his stories of hardship, friendship and reality. He has truly dedicated himself to social justice for our people and his book reflects enduring tales of overcoming adversity, and the highs and lows of traversing the courts and justice system.

—Dr Jackie Huggins AM

Jackie Huggins is Co-Chair of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples. She has been an activist for over four decades, involved in social justice, reconciliation, education and women’s issues.

____________________________

I laughed – with and at Paul and the wonderful stream of characters who make appearances throughout this book, most of whom I know or knew. Some of the stories I have heard Paul re-tell many times over the years, but some he has only revealed in this work. I also felt anger and sadness at the injustice and inhumanity that the vignettes individually and collectively portray. Thank you Paul Richards for sharing your chronicle of some of the moments in the lives of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders in that place we call Queensland that needed to be recorded, and ought to be remembered and understood by all Australians.

—Tony McAvoy SC

Tony McAvoy is the first Indigenous barrister to be appointed as a Senior Counsel in the history of Australia. A Wirdi man (central Queensland), he is also recognised as a Kullilli native title holder. He appeared for his Kullilli people as barrister for their Native Title Determination in 2014, instructed by the author as solicitor.

____________________________

On a brave quest for truth and justice for Indigenous Australians, Paul Richards puts his personal and professional life on the line. This is a story of courage and honesty required of any nation that craves maturity.

—Dr Chris Sarra

Chris Sarra is an educator and a Taribelang Bunda man, founder of the Stronger Smarter Institute, National NAIDOC Person of the Year (2016), Australian of the Year finalist (2010) and Queenslander of the Year (2004).

____________________________

List of photos

Images are the property of the author unless otherwise stated.

1. Vivian Walker performing his self-choreographed interpretation of his mother’s poems at Yeti Theatre, 1971

2. Vivian Walker, 1988. Source: Valerie Cooms

3. Denis Walker and the author in challenging debate at Amity Point, mid to late 1980s

4. Davidson family photo, New Year’s Eve, 1980s

5. Denis Walker standing in Jimmy Crow’s tree trunk, 1971

6. Don Davidson giving the author instructions, 1971

7. Some Cherbourg people greeting us in Murgon with the Black Power salute, 1971

8. Les Collins (Black Power salute) and Denis Walker (black helmet), about 1971

9. Cheryl Buchanan (at left, wearing a hat), Marlene Cummins (holding the land rights placard) and Steve Hart (at right, in light jacket)

10. Pastor Brady addressing a crowd in King George Square, Denis Walker in the foreground, about 1971

11. First life members of the ALS receiving awards (seated, Pastor Don Brady; from left Steve Mam, Don Davidson, Denis Walker and Jane Arnold), c. 1980

12. Paul Pryor being a bikie in the back yard at Second Beach

13. Kowanyama Airport, late 1970s

14. A metal box masquerading as a watch-house at Weipa, 1977

15. Weipa chairman’s office, with children, and state manager watching from his office, 1977

16. Yarrabah beach with sign and Elders (Alf Neal, right, and the deceased senior man of the Gurabana Gungangi), 1977

17. The snake greeting the Elder

18. Author and clients outside Cairns Court after the District Court ruling about the bird eggs case

19. Bark hut at Aurukun, 1978

20. Aurukun police officers and councillor, 1978

21. Steve Mam carrying placard showing Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen being carried by Islanders, with Mick Miller, 1982 Commonwealth Games demos

22. The farmhouse at Amamoor

23. Shane Ambrum and the author, 2016, after attending the Federal Court ceremony welcoming Tony McAvoy as the first Indigenous QC in Australian history

24. Team photo, 1986. Source: Brisbane Natives Football Club

25. The late Selwyn Johnson (left) and the late Doug Currie at the time the author closed his legal practice, 2000

26. Some of the staff who attended the closing-down party for Paul Richards and Associates, 2000

27. At the Native Title Determination – Justice Logan (centre), Tony McAvoy QC (far right), the author (far left) and the Kullilli applicants (left to right, Ron Watson, Shelley Smith, Maxine Gooda, Judy Conlon, Brenda Fisher, Liz McAvoy, Stephen Hagan, Kayleen Hopkins, Peter White) after the Federal Court order, 2014. Source: Queensland South Native Title Services

28. The Davidson family with Tony McAvoy QC (far left) and the author at the Native Title Determination in Thargomindah, 2014. Source: Queensland South Native Title Services

29. Dr Valerie Cooms, CEO of Queensland South Native Title Services (left) and Sharon McAvoy, Kullilli organiser, at the swearing-in ceremony for Tony McAvoy, 2016

Foreword

I was around sixteen years of age when I first heard about Paul Richards from my Aunty Kath Walker. It was in the context of him being a solicitor and someone who had the will and ability to help you if you were in trouble. He was the first solicitor I had ever met, and he knew and respected us and our rights. None of us had ever had any dealings with solicitors – but we’d had plenty with police.

Paul was an integral part of the Aboriginal Legal Service in Brisbane and the first person everyone looked for, not only if they had been arrested, but when they needed someone to help with the discrimination and injustice so commonplace in everyone’s lives. We looked for Paul because of the good work he always did, as well as his position within our communities and families. His cultural competence and understanding of how Aboriginal people live and think were crucial in making him such a great friend to many Aboriginal families throughout Queensland.

Paul came to work with me at the then Queensland South Native Title Services (QSNTS). My colleague Tony McAvoy and I tried to get Paul to work with us in native title. I knew that Paul’s relationships with particular members of traditional owner groups in southern Queensland, and the subsequent mutual respect, would come in handy for the work we were doing. In particular, the Kullilli group had many members who knew and trusted Paul, and his work with the group resulted in their consent determination a few years ago.

His history and wonderful stories are a testament to his very being and the strong relationships and bonds he holds with us all. Paul would attend the Opal dances held in the city many years ago.

These dances were often the subject of police raids and Paul was always there asking, Is there a problem officer? He also joined some Aboriginal men to do the police or pig patrols in the 1970s, keeping an eye on discrimination and harassment of Aboriginal people. His commitment to justice never wavered. He always had and always will have the courage to continue to do this.

Paul is always respectful, mindful, kind and caring, and is the best known legal person (and not just when people are in trouble) in Queensland. Having worked as a lawyer for nearly fifty years, Paul is well known and respected not only within our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities but within the legal world, among young upcoming lawyers as well as judges. I am honoured to be his friend and colleague. I would also like a dollar for every time I have been asked for his phone number despite his cries that he is now retired. People like Paul never retire from seeking equity and justice.

Dr Valerie Cooms,

CEO, Queensland South Native Title Services

27 November 2018

Valerie Cooms belongs to the Nunukul people of North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah). She worked with her cousin Denis Walker at the then Black Community Centre in Spring Hill, Brisbane, in the early 1970s. Valerie has spent many years in the administration of Aboriginal affairs, including working on the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours and a PhD from the Australian National University. Valerie has three children and ten grandchildren.

Acknowledgements

There are many people who assisted in the preparation of this book and I would like to thank Dr Val Cooms, Dr Stephen Hagan, Dr Jackie Huggins, Tony McAvoy SC, Dr Chris Sarra, Kevin Smith, Kathryn Ridge, Percy Neal, Graham Brady, Susan Richards, Anna Williams and Erin Lang, among many others.

In the process of completing this book, I have been given enormous assistance by my friend Boyick Mhlanga. His lack of familiarity with the subject matter provided me with a more objective view and his technical skills have been critical in reaching completion.

I am grateful also to my editor, Kerry Davies, who was able to guide this first-time author through the maze of publication hurdles with the delicacy needed for some of the sensitive cultural aspects of this book.

Introduction

In my time I have experienced many adventures with agitators, and here I share some of those experiences with you. Agitators was a word used by a magistrate in about 1980 to describe Aboriginal people who were seeking changes to the awful conditions of their people at that time.

By that definition, most of the Aboriginal people I have mentioned in this book would be agitators, even if I have not specifically identified them as such. Many courageous people have, since colonial times, carried the noble cause as agitators. This book, however, will only relate to the people with whom I was involved or closely connected to somehow in my role since my first involvement in 1968.

I have wrestled with the question as to whether I should share the stories in this book. In effect, I am probably telling stories that are really those of the Aboriginal people themselves. It may seem vain or presumptuous for me to be the presenter of these tales. At some point, I drew strength from the fact that, to a large extent, I was part of the tales and, in some cases, I was the eyes, the ears and the touch to the tale. As such, I feel compelled to share these accounts as to how I was engulfed by the experiences. Further, if I do not share them, they may stay out of public knowledge. Perhaps also, to some extent, they may compel others to share their stories.

The tales I share take us through country, from south-east Queensland to north Queensland and west Queensland as far as Cunnamulla. In some parts, I talk of being taken on country by the traditional owners, but I will not be telling their stories about their country. In some parts, individuals share their happy moments and their struggles. It is those struggles that indeed make them the agitators. There are legal struggles, political endeavours, moral dilemmas and, in many a case, a matter of identity as a people.

The adventures I relate in this book began as a result of my theatre work and my fortuitous encounter with the late Vivian Walker – to whom this book is dedicated. Vivian brought me into contact with his people (the Nunukul of Minjerribah) beginning when I was a university student in 1968.

Over the years, I have enjoyed close contact with many respected Elders of the Aboriginal community. Many of them tried to teach me some aspects of traditional law and language. I confess that I did not give as much attention as I should have. My excuse is that, with my youth and inexperience, I was preoccupied with justice issues involving police conduct as a priority. I cannot profess to having any degree of expertise on the laws of any Aboriginal group. My stories are about the relationships, not the laws or the culture of any group. Any such stories to do with traditional laws and customs are better told by their custodians.

As I share the stories, I have taken into account aspects of confidentiality by which I am constrained from identifying some of the individuals themselves. In some circumstances, a value judgement made thirty or forty years after the event may be interpreted differently in a different context.

Although I met many exceptional people over the years, with so many tales to tell, I have only mentioned those who have been involved in the stories narrated. Those not mentioned, but who were present when the events took place, should not feel disappointed as I am attempting to narrate from my angle and about those with whom I directly interacted at a particular point. I do encourage all to retell the stories from their own perspectives also.

I have tried to avoid political commentary but could not tell some of the stories adequately without including the political context. It’s hard to provide a brief description of the enormity of the disgraceful treatment of First Nations peoples in Australia. Some understanding may be gained from a science-fiction novel written over a century ago. H. G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds after he visited Australia in the 1890s and saw the treatment of Aboriginal people. The Martians are the equivalent of the English. Using technological superiority, they engaged in inhuman attempts to destroy a species they considered to be vermin.

The narratives in this book are presented as illustrative, not as evidence. It is not a history, a biography or an authoritative legal text, although I have referred to legal issues in some cases for clarification. It is only intended to be a collection of stories or yarns – focusing particularly on Queensland during the period 1968 to 2015. So, I have not referred to Elders or rights campaigners in other states – although I acknowledge their significance, particularly the Freedom Ride led by Charles Perkins in 1965.

Over the decades, there have been many publications by historians, anthropologists and other authors who deal in more detail with many of the issues I discuss in this book. There have also been numerous commissions of inquiry and studied reports by government and non-government agencies. I could not possibly refer to all of them or cover such topics in the detail provided in those reports. One feature has been the multiplicity of words used to describe the people. An early term was native. It is only in recent decades that people have been identified by their traditional group, such as Wakka Wakka. Other expressions such as Indigenous have been used. Recently, the expression First Nations has received some acceptance. In this book, for the most part, I will refer to Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people; or, collectively, First Nations peoples. If other words appear in some places, that may result from the context. Please forgive me if I err in any usage.

In some stories, I talk about how the government machinery is linked to the agitators through the awful conditions and disadvantage that Aboriginal people and Torres Islander people faced. I only have to think of some of the ideas pushed through the education system in my youth. At school there was only the briefest reference to Aboriginal people, to the effect that they had eaten grubs, lived in the bush and had all died out and disappeared – end of story! Such propaganda shaped those born into such messages, and such conditioning comes up in some of the stories I share about the agitators.

The stories take the reader from the past, showing the conditions and treatment of First Nations peoples to the present. The change and contrast from the past to the present is to some extent described. The agitators in my stories, and indeed those not in my stories, achieved such enormous influence without an armed struggle in an era when taking to arms has been the quick fix. This book aims to give some insight into the remarkable achievements of these agitators.

PART ONE

Early encounters

1. The Nunukul of Minjerribah

The Nunukul, along with the Ngugi and the Goenpul, are the traditional owners of the island of Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) and the nearby lands and waters of Quandamooka (Moreton Bay). The island is on the doorstep of the city of Brisbane – a forty-minute barge trip from the mainland. Despite the genocidal actions of the colonial period, a large proportion of Indigenous people remained on the island and survived.

It is an extremely beautiful island with glorious coastal beaches, bayside mangroves, forests and freshwater lakes. The beaches were a smorgasbord of shellfish (yugaris) and other delicacies. The forests were full of edible wildlife as well as nutritious and medicinal vegetation. Despite the colonial invasion, much of the abundance remains.

The island was developed as a tourist resort and is a nearby holiday favourite for people from Brisbane. It also had waves of invasion by miners and property developers, as well as the tourists, with each wave pushing the Aboriginal occupants to the reserves.

Reserves were segregated areas perceived to be of low value by the invaders. The reserves gave no easy life, as the populations were constantly subjected to harsh treatment by the authorities. Further, the lands and marine resources that were sources of livelihood were annexed for mining, tourism and other functions that did not sustain the Aboriginal people.

Despite all that, the Nunukul, along with the Ngugi and the Goenpul, persevered and have maintained their identity on the island to this day. My contact with Vivian Walker, a Nunukul of Minjerribah, planted the seed from which these tales have grown.

The displacement was always coupled with removal of rights and access to resources and traditional interests. Minjerribah’s First Nations people did not have recognised legal rights to property until as recently as the late 1970s to early 1980s. This change was brought about by the introduction of a federally funded scheme under the auspices of the Aboriginal Development Commission.

The scheme allowed for rights to own land via a housing program. Aboriginal people organised themselves into a housing cooperative that operated exceptionally well, with frequent commendation from the funding authority. As such, a pathway to lost rights to the land began, even though this was a different class of rights or meaning from the rights held before occupation.

Oodgeroo

Among the tribe of the Nunukul was Kath Walker. My connection to her son Vivian, through theatre, established my connection to Kath, or Oodgeroo Noonuccal, as she became known after a legal name change in 1988. (Noonuccal is an alternative spelling of the word, from a language that was originally not written.) She achieved international distinction as a poet. She travelled overseas as a literary ambassador. She was given ownership of some land in Russia (but could not sell it).

In 1974 Oodgeroo attended a meeting for the World Black Arts Festival in Nigeria. On the way, her plane was hijacked and she spent a long time stuck in the desert waiting for rescue.

When she got to Nigeria, her hosts gave her a chauffeur-driven car and she was invited to a formal dinner. She caused her hosts some consternation when she insisted that her driver would have to eat with her because her law was that, if you were travelling with someone, you would share your meal with them. She maintained her adherence to her culture throughout her life and passed that on to her sons. She contributed much to keeping the Nunukul culture and spirit alive during the dark days.

She was referred to by various community and political figures as a communist and an agitator. She was certainly an agitator – and proud of it. Since the communists were sympathetic to her cause and supportive of her, she associated with them on a social and intellectual basis. So many non-Aboriginal people were at best disinterested and often antagonistic, she was always trying to spread her message about Aboriginal rights. I recall her frequently saying, How hard it is educating white folk.

In 1968 she was living in Greenslopes, a Brisbane suburb, and enjoying life in the literary world. Her elder son, Denis Walker, born in 1946 to a Vanuatu father, had been a merchant seaman, but then pursued further studies. Her younger son, Vivian, born in 1952 to an Italian father, had just finished high school. They both had very different interests.

Vivian

Vivian was very artistic. In 1968 he was engaged in making a pilot TV program called Star Boy. He was at the home of the director when I visited to talk to the director about theatre issues. After a few moments of chitchat with the director, the room was suddenly a stage setting for the entrance of this stunningly graceful young man.

Vivian had enormous presence,