'They couldn't break me': Don McLeod, champion for Aboriginal justice in the Pilbara
Creators: name: Richardson, Jan
Publisher: name: Figshare
Year: 2017
Subjects: History

description: In 1946 in the
North-West region of Western Australia, a White man named Donald William McLeod
came to prominence when he assisted Aboriginal pastoral workers to leave their
employment during a strike that continued for three years. His membership of
the Communist Party of Australia was thought to be his motivation, and he was
kept under surveillance by Australia’s security organisation. He was arrested,
fined and jailed for his actions but was undeterred and for the next fifty
years lived with the strikers and worked with them to gain their freedom from
the controls of government. <br>
   Research was centred on documentary evidence in archives and
libraries and drew on private collections and stories of some who worked with
McLeod. It shows that McLeod identified Section 70 of the original Constitution
of Western Australia as the British Crown’s intention to educate the Colony’s
Aboriginal peoples and care for their welfare. When it was removed in the final
Constitution Act, 1905, he brought this action into the public arena and
campaigned to have its benefits reinstated. He established proprietary limited
companies through which illiterate tribal elders could gain their civil rights,
advised them on income-producing manual work and assisted them to buy land with
the proceeds of their work. He helped them establish the first Western
Australian Aboriginal-controlled independent school and culturally-appropriate
medical service with an aeroplane to reach their outlying communities. He
assisted them to sink water wells and make roads into the desert, enabling
families to return to their country, and supported the Lawmen to develop social
programs dealing with alcoholism amongst the younger generation. The question
this thesis addresses is: who was this man and why was he committed to working
for these Aboriginal people? <br>
   Investigating McLeod’s characteristics and motivations
expands the historical record of changes in the pastoral industry and the
emergence of Aboriginal enterprises in the Pilbara. The study is a
micro-historical record that offers evidence of a North-West culture imbued
with a colonial philosophy. It offers insights into the incremental steps the
previously disempowered Aboriginal pastoral workers took to manage their
transition to the modern economy while maintaining their traditional Law. It
also provides an insider’s account of the processes of social and change that brought
Aboriginal people freedom from the controls of a state government. <br>
   This biographical study is the first to examine McLeod’s life
story and consider the reasons for his actions. Its findings establish that he
had a coherent philosophy and that his actions were consistent with his
transformative understanding of traditional Aboriginal Law. It theorises that
he was an empathy-induced altruist who recognised the fundamental injustice
perpetrated on Aboriginal <br>
   people during the process of colonisation, and chose to help
the people recover their previous autonomy. It demonstrates that a working man
with no institutional base can challenge an entrenched idea and, if willing to
suffer for his principles, can exercise power disproportionate to his position
in society.