# Daisy Bindi

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{{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](/source/Aboriginal_Australian) Indigenous rights activist and a leader in the landmark [1946 Pilbara strike](/source/1946_Pilbara_strike) in [Western Australia](/source/Western_Australia).

== Early life ==
Bindi was born about 1904 on a cattle-station near present-day [Jigalong](/source/Jigalong_Community%2C_Western_Australia), on the edge of the [Gibson Desert](/source/Gibson_Desert) in [Western Australia](/source/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](/source/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](/source/Pilbara) region shown in red]]
The [Pilbara strike](/source/1946_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](/source/Nyangumarta_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](/source/Nullagine%2C_Western_Australia), 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](/source/Shaw_River_(Western_Australia)) 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](/source/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](/source/Port_Hedland%2C_Western_Australia), Western Australia. She was buried in the local cemetery.<ref name=":0" />

== Legacy ==

The poet [Kath Walker](/source/Oodgeroo_Noonuccal), 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](/source/Black_Swan_State_Theatre_Company) production of the play ''Yandy'', written by Jolly Read and directed by [Rachael Maza](/source/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''

{{authority control}}

{{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

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Daisy Bindi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Bindi) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Bindi?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.