Different White People ― Radical Activism for Aboriginal Rights 1946-1972

The division between the right- and leftwing camps of the Cold War era is seemingly straightforward. Yet local histories reveal deeply complex relationships between political and social groups that do not divide into easy alliances. Different White People is the story of one such relationship. Divided into three intimate narratives, historian Deborah Wilson traces the connections between Aborigines and left wing, usually communist, activists between 1946 and 1975. Following the campaigns from sheep stations, through deserts, to cattle stations, Wilson examines how the issues of such activism shifted as conflicts over worker and human rights were overwhelmed by modern battleground disputes about land and compensation. This important work highlights left-wing collaboration, within a much broader pressure group of activists and organisations throughout Australia, working to advance the rights of Aboriginal people. Union support for Aboriginal rights variously ebbed and flowed during the period under investigation, but communists maintained vigorous solidarity throughout. Left-wing activism during the campaigns manifested in many forms, including provision of industrial advocacy and financial support, coordination of protest meetings and marches, hands on assistance for Aboriginal activist communities, and comprehensive publicity of the stories in leftwing newspapers and journals. Artistic representation of disputes also featured in leftist poetry, drama, film, music, caricature and literature. Inclusion of this activism in art adds colour to a narrative based so centrally around the dark subject at the heart of the investigation: the intolerable treatment of Aboriginal peoples that these activists were determined to change.