Bower Studio builds for 50th Anniversary of Wave Hill Walk-off

In August 1966, Vincent Lingiari, a Gurindji leader, led a walk-off of 200 Aboriginal stockmen, house servants, and their families from Wave Hill as a protest against the work and pay conditions. To commemorate 50 years since the Wave Hill Walk-off of 1966, architecture students at the University of Melbourne's Bower Studio have constructed a series of 'bough shelters? along the walk-off track and at Kalkarindji's cultural hub. Bower Studio program co-ordinator Dr David O?Brien has developed projects with 18 communities in remote Australia and Papua New Guinea over a nine-year period. 'Appropriate design is not readily accessible to people living at the margins of mainstream society but it is important that they have access to well-considered design outcomes that suit their cultural, health and educational needs.' he said. 'Besides working with the communities, I also love that we can work together to get something built that has real value for remote communities - architecture can have significant positive social outcomes,' Dr O'Brien said. 'Our follow up research with the communities also helps make the program stronger and smarter.' The Wave-hill walk off was also the inspiration for the iconic image of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam where he transferred leasehold title to the Gurindji by symbolically handing soil to Vincent Lingiari in 1975 at Daguragu. For 2016, The Bower Studio has been commissioned by the Kalkarindji and Dagaragu communities to build the pavilions for the 50th Freedom Day celebrations this year.