The Pilbara Aboriginal Strike Website Has Launched

The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media is excited to announce the launch of a new digital history project, The Pilbara Aboriginal Strike. Working with two scholars in Australia, Bain Attwood at Monash University and historian Anne Scrimgeour, this project brings together the rich and multi-layered history of the strike that began in the Pilbara region of Western Australia in 1946. Fighting for better wages and working conditions within a settler colonial system, the strike ultimately resulted in positive changes for the Aboriginal community, as well as influencing nationwide advocacy for Aboriginal rights. The website is part of the first major scholarly study of the strike as one of the most important, yet often overlooked, events in Australia’s indigenous history.

The Pilbara Aboriginal Strike features digital exhibits that foreground Aboriginal voices through oral history recordings, biographies of the different people involved in the strike, such as community leaders, portraits of the organizations involved, including government ones, as well as an interactive timeline and digital archive. The project is aimed toward Aboriginal communities, humanities scholars, and post-secondary students, offering a nuanced history with many perspectives and over 500 primary sources to explore, including oral histories, newspapers, photographs, and film footage.

Homepage of The Pilbara Aboriginal Strike.

The Pilbara Aboriginal Strike project highlights the actions of the Aboriginal people who fought for their rights and influenced the campaign for Aboriginal rights across Australia.