A Bedford truck that played a pivotal role in an Indigenous land rights movement during the 1960s will find its new home in Canberra.
The truck's significance developed during a seven-year strike by Indigenous station workers, said the National Museum of Australia, which is now charged with conserving and displaying the vehicle.
The strike was first about wages, but it turned into something bigger.
In 1966, Australia's industrial tribunal had ruled that Indigenous workers should be paid equal wages – but not for another three years.
The delay was the catalyst for strikes across Australia.
On Wave Hill, one of the largest pastoral stations in the Northern Territory, Vincent Lingiari, a Gurindji man, asked the station master for equal wages and was refused, the National Museum of Australia says.
He led Gurindji, Ngarinman, Bilinara, Warlpiri and Mudburra stockmen, domestic workers and their families in walking off the property, in a strike that would last seven years.
The strike became symbolic, and one of the first events to attract public support for Indigenous land rights, the museum said.
Aboriginal rights campaigner Brian Manning was one of the first to help the striking workers. He used his 1960s TJ Series Bedford truck to deliver supplies and correspondence to the Gurindji people.
At the end of the strike, prime minister Gough Whitlam had the station owners agree to give the Gurindji back a part of their land.
"We are honoured and proud to be asked to care for this important historic vehicle," the museum's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program head, Patricia Williamson, said.
"From 1966 the truck played a key role in supporting the Gurindji people in their nine-year struggle to gain land rights and Brian Manning's support helped the Gurindji face their hardships and strengthen the resolve of those involved.
"Even today members of the Gurindji, Malgnin, Warlpiri, Mudburra, Ngarinman and Bilinara Aboriginal groups living at Kalkarindji and Daguragu in the Northern Territory, see the truck as a significant symbol of their struggle to obtain autonomy and rights over their land."
The truck was offered as a donation to the museum last year.
The museum will continue to consult with Indigenous people about the most appropriate ways to conserve and display the truck.
It's expected to arrive in the ACT from the Northern Territory this year.
