AustLit

'Marrngu men and women (local Aboriginal people in the Nyangumarta language) tell the story of their successful three-year strike to decolonise the Pilbara in this monumental history by Anne Scrimgeour. Oral history recordings, conducted by Scrimgeour and transcribed and translated into English by Barbara Hale and Mark Clendon, enable Marrngu to speak truth to the deeply racist, violent, colonial power systems so well documented in the historical record. Extensive research, eloquent and nuanced analysis, new arguments and captivating storytelling make this a truly great historical work.' (Introduction)

'Anne Scrimgeour’s history of the Pilbara Aboriginal Strike recounts a pivotal moment in Australian history when white pastoralists had to start paying their Aboriginal workers.' (Introduction)

'It was only seventy years ago that Aboriginal workers in the north-west of Western Australia emerged from virtual slavery on the pastoral stations in the Pilbara region. Through their own efforts, and with encouragement from some white supporters, they radically changed the industry and undermined a colonising process of government control over them. Their protest is known as the 1946–1949 pastoral workers’ strike, which Anne Scrimgeour declares ‘has the quality of a legend’. In On Red Earth Walking she verifies the story. Her meticulous archival research and evidence, from those whose planning and actions were mostly not recorded, lead her to new understandings. It is her relationship with the strikers and their descendants that makes her book unique, for she conveys their response to colonisation through their eyes.'  (Introduction)