{{Short description|Aboriginal Australian Indigenous rights activist}} {{Use Australian English|date=February 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
'''Daisy Bindi''' (1904—1962), also known as '''Mumaring''', was an Aboriginal Australian Indigenous rights activist and a leader in the landmark 1946 Pilbara strike in Western Australia.
== Early life == Bindi was born about 1904 on a cattle-station near present-day Jigalong, on the edge of the Gibson Desert in Western Australia, to parents Jimmy and Milly.<ref name=":0">{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |last=Bosworth|first=Michal|title=Bindi, Daisy (1904–1962)|id2=bindi-daisy-9505/text16733|access-date=2018-08-13}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE1000b.htm|title=Bindi, Daisy - Woman - The Australian Women's Register|last=Melbourne|first=National Foundation for Australian Women and The University of|website=www.womenaustralia.info|language=en-gb|access-date=2018-08-13}}</ref> Her Aboriginal name was Mumaring.<ref name=":0" /> She acquired the name Bindi on her marriage to her husband,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Haskins|first1=Victoria|last2=Scrimgeour|first2=Anne|date=2015|title="Strike Strike, We Strike": Making Aboriginal Domestic Labor Visible in the Pilbara Pastoral Workers' Strike, Western Australia, 1946–1952|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-labor-and-working-class-history/article/strike-strike-we-strike-making-aboriginal-domestic-labor-visible-in-the-pilbara-pastoral-workers-strike-western-australia-19461952/6BB87BF068532EC533DD27455B6C6D6E|journal=International Labor and Working-Class History|language=en|volume=88|pages=87–108|doi=10.1017/S0147547915000228|s2cid=151518016|issn=0147-5479|url-access=subscription}}</ref> though no other records of their union have been found.<ref name=":0" />
As a child she worked on Ethel Creek station, where she learned housework and to manage horses,<ref name=":1" /> and became an accomplished horsewoman.<ref name=":0" />
== The 1946 Pilbara strike == [[File:IBRA 6.1 Pilbara.png|thumb|The Pilbara region shown in red]] The Pilbara strike was one of Australia's longest, and changed the structure of labour relations in the state of Western Australia.'''<ref name=":1" />''' Bindi helped win Aboriginal workers fairer pay and better working conditions.'''<ref>{{Citation|title=Daisy Bindi: The girl who fought for more|date=2018-04-10|url=http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/fierce-girls/daisy-bindi-the-girl-who-fought-for-more/9550202|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|language=en|access-date=2018-08-14}}</ref>'''
In 1946 in protest against poor wages and living conditions, unionist and elected spokesman for the Aborigines; Don McLeod and Aboriginal lawmen Dooley Bin Bin and Clancy McKenna, encouraged Aborigines working on sheep and cattle stations in Pilbara to strike for better conditions.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/rightwrongs/story/pilbara-strike/|title=Pilbara strike {{!}} Right Wrongs|website=www.abc.net.au|language=en-US|access-date=2018-08-14}}</ref> Bindi was among the most prominent backers of McLeod,<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aar/mcleod.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050315030844/http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aar/mcleod.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2005-03-15|title=REBEL OF THE PILBARA|date=2005-03-15|access-date=2018-08-13}}</ref> and she led 96 people in the walk-off from Roy Hill station.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Willey|first=Keith|date=1977|title=Review of The Black Eureka|journal=Labour History|issue=33|pages=110–112|doi=10.2307/27508287|jstor=27508287}}</ref> She lived and worked with the Nyangumarda people on pastoral stations, where she witnessed and experienced indignities from the police in regular police raids on Aboriginal camps.<ref name=":0" /> At the time it was common for Aboriginal workers to be paid only in rations of food and clothing.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/politics/1946-pilbara-strike-australias-longest-strike|title=1946 Pilbara strike - Australia's longest strike|last=Spirits|first=Jens Korff, Creative|website=Creative Spirits|language=en-AU|access-date=2018-08-13}}</ref>
Daisy demanded wages from her white station boss, which she received and used to hire a truck and collect workers.<ref name=":4" /> She organised the strike on the stations near her despite threats of her removal from the area by police and the Native Welfare Department,<ref name=":1" /> and her efforts were instrumental in spreading the strike to Pilbara stations further inland.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last=Hess|first=Michael|title=Black and Red: The Pilbara Pastoral Workers' Strike, 1946|date=1994|journal=Aboriginal History|volume=18|issue=1/2|pages=65–83|jstor=24046089}}</ref> At Nullagine, when confronted by police, Bindi talked her way through and claimed that she had never heard of McLeod, and made her way to Canning Camp on the Shaw River with 86 others.<ref name=":0" />
A result of the strike was the establishment of an independent Aboriginal Co-operative organisation, of which Bindi was an active member, which engaged in mining ventures in the 1950s.'''<ref name=":3" />'''
== Later life == In the 1950s Bindi lived in the Pindan Cooperative settlement in Port Hedland, a well-ordered collective and one of the first Aboriginal cooperatives formed in Western Australia, where residents worked in the mining industry and received equal pay.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> In October 1959 she successfully lobbied for a school for Pindan'''<ref name=":1" />''' while in Perth to be fitted for an prosthetic limb after losing her leg in an accident in the bush.<ref name=":0" /> In Perth she also spoke at meetings of the Western Australian branch of the Union of Australian Women, a group which supported the cause of Aboriginal rights.<ref name=":0" />
In 1960 the Cooperative split into fractions, some who wished to continue with McLeod, and others who thought that his position against mining interests were counterproductive to the Aboriginal cause; which included Bindi.<ref name=":0" />
Bindi died on 23 December 1962 of uraemia, a type of kidney disease, at the Native Hospital in Port Hedland, Western Australia. She was buried in the local cemetery.<ref name=":0" />
== Legacy ==
The poet Kath Walker, later known as Oodgeroo Noonuccal, made Bindi the eponymous heroine of a poem in the book ''My people: a Kath Walker collection''.'''<ref name=":0" />'''
The 2004 Black Swan Theatre Company production of the play ''Yandy'', written by Jolly Read and directed by Rachael Maza, tells the story of the Indigenous workers in the Pilbara strike, including Bindi, and their fight for wages, freedom of speech and freedom of movement across their country.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Campbell|first=Angela|date=2010|title=Yandy: Walking the Uneven Lie of a Mining Boom|journal=Australasian Drama Studies|volume=56|pages=53–70}}</ref><ref name="AustralianPlays.org 2004">{{cite web | title=Yandy | website=AustralianPlays.org | date=17 October 2004 | url=https://australianplays.org/script/ASC-825 | access-date=8 February 2020 | archive-date=20 September 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920043002/https://australianplays.org/script/ASC-825 | url-status=dead }}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* Poem [https://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/noonuccal-oodgeroo/daisy-bindi-0771068 ''Daisy Bindi'' by Oodgeroo Noonuccal] from the book ''My people: a Kath Walker collection''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bindi, Daisy}} Category:Australian Indigenous rights activists Category:Australian women human rights activists Category:1904 births Category:1962 deaths Category:People from the Pilbara Category:20th-century Australian women