Making Change Happen Black and White Activists talk to Kevin Cook about Aboriginal, Union and Liberation Politics Kevin Cook and Heather Goodall Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at http://epress.anu.edu.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Cook, Kevin, author. Title: Making change happen : black & white activists talk to Kevin Cook about Aboriginal, union & liberation politics / Kevin Cook and Heather Goodall. ISBN: 9781921666728 (paperback) 9781921666742 (ebook) Subjects: Social change--Australia. Political activists--Australia. Aboriginal Australians--Politics and government. Australia--Politics and government--20th century. Australia--Social conditions--20th century. Other Authors/Contributors: Goodall, Heather, author. Dewey Number: 303.484 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover images: Kevin Cook, 1981, by Penny Tweedie (attached) Courtesy of Wildlife agency. Aboriginal History Incorporated Aboriginal History Inc. is a part of the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University and gratefully acknowledges the support of the School of History RSSS and the National Centre for Indigenous Studies, The Australian National University. Aboriginal History Inc is administered by an Editorial Board which is responsible for all unsigned material. Views and opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily shared by Board members. The Committee of Management and the Editorial Board Peter Read (Chair), Rani Kerin (Monographs Editor), Maria Nugent and Shino Konishi (Journal Editors), Robert Paton (Treasurer and Public Officer), Ann McGrath (Deputy Chair), Isabel McBryde, Niel Gunson, Luise Hercus, Harold Koch, Tikka Wilson, Geoff Gray, Dave Johnson, Ingereth Macfarlane, Brian Egloff, Lorena Kanellopoulos, Richard Baker, Peter Radoll. WARNING: Readers are notified that this publication may contain names or images of deceased persons. Contacting Aboriginal History All correspondence should be addressed to the Editors, Aboriginal History, ACIH, School of History, RSSS, Coombs Building (9) ANU, ACT, 0200, or [email protected]. Sales and orders for journals and monographs, and journal subscriptions: Thelma Sims, email: [email protected], tel or fax: +61 2 6125 3269, www.aboriginalhistory.org Cover design and layout by ANU E Press. Printed by Griffin Press This edition © 2013 ANU E Press Contents Acknowledgements . vii An introduction to Cookie’s book . 1 PART 1: FOUNDATIONS 1 . Growing up Koorie — in Wollongong . 9 2 . Life and death on the job: The Builders Labourers’ Federation — rank and file democracy, 1970 to 1975 . 25 3. In the wider struggle: The union, gender, race and environment . 45 4. Tranby, co-operatives and empowerment . 61 PART 2: TRANBY 1980s 5. Aboriginal-directed education: Getting started . 87 6. Exploring possibilities: Teaching and learning at Tranby . 107 7. Politics and real education . 123 8 . Reaching out for change . 145 PART 3: LAND RIGHTS NSW 1980s 9. Strategies: 1976 to 1981 . 175 10. Experiences: 1981 to 1982—Street demos and bush camps . 209 11. Hard decisions: 1983 to 1985 . 237 12 . Getting land back . 255 PART 4: NETWORKS 1980s 13 . National networks . 275 14 . Onto the streets . 295 15. International networks . 313 PART 5: BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER 16 . Bicentennial . 335 17. Beyond the Bicentennial: Victories, defeats and more struggles for change . 367 18. Reflections: Networks, hubs, pathways – and leadership . 403 Appendix 1 . Interviewees . 421 Appendix 2. Glossary and abbreviations . 423 Appendix 3. Bibliography and further reading . 427 Index . 431 Acknowledgements There are many, many people to thank for their contributions to this book. Here we can focus on some central ones. The people who were interviewed for this book have helped Cookie to create it. You shared your memories with Cookie in those wonderful lunches and dinners with him and Judy. In fact some of you cooked the meals! The photographs of some of those times are in Chapter 18. All of your names are in the first appendix. We have sadly lost some of you, but your words will continue to live on these pages. You not only contributed your time over those meals, often with lots of travel to get there, but you have been Kevin’s close friends and stalwart comrades over many decades. As he has become less able to travel to talk with you, you have come to see him, keeping in touch in person or over that telephone which is still at his side. There are some very important libraries and archives whose support has been essential to the information and the images. The Coady International Institute and the St Francis Xavier University Archives have been generous and enthusiastic in documenting this episode of innovative cooperative work. The image and holdings of the Tranby Archives, set up on Cookie’s watch and built by Julia Mant and its current librarian, Rowana. Tranby staff have always been important for Cookie to do the work he has done, and this has continued even as he became ill and had to retire from active work. Cookie particularly wants to thank Greta North, who was his PA and secretary for a long time. Tranby continues to be an exciting and stimulating environment for staff and students and both Kevin and I have been grateful to draw from that enthusiasm. This work has been funded in part by the Rona-Tranby Foundation, which has encouraged the role of oral history and memory in giving new insights into Aboriginal stories. The Foundation’s generous support allowed us to pay for air fares so that Cookie was able to talk with his long-time comrades so he make a book about the movements they shared. Roland Gridiger and the other Rona- Tranby staff have offered sustained support and interest despite the book’s long gestation. The other major contributor to funding this project has been the Maritime Union of Australia, formed by the amalgamation in the late 1980s of the Seamen’s vii Making Change Happen Union and the Waterside Workers’ Federation. Rod Pickette, Kevin’s long-time friend, is now MUA Policy Executive Officer. These unions have been strong supporters of Tranby and of Kevin’s work, and in particular, the support of Patrick Geraghty and Paddy Crumlin of the SUA and then the MUA has been vitally important. We want to thank Margaret who has taken so much care to find photos of her life with Cookie in the early years and to share the marvelous photographs of their grown up children, Suzie and Mereki, and then the next generation, Margaret and Cookie’s grandchildren, Jake, Adam, Ben and Emma. Central to the work of actually getting this book together have been the dedicated group of Kevin’s friends who have read over the (many) drafts and rummaged around old boxes to find photographs: Dave Morrissey, Chris Milne, Julia Mant, Rod Pickette, Delia Lowe, Julie House, Patty Anderson, Terry O’Shane, Chris Kerr, Barbara and Karen Flick, Jack Ah Kit, Paulie Torzillo, Brian Doolan, William Bates and Norma Walford, David Ross, Peter Thompson, Nadia Wheatley and Meredith Burgmann. Nadia Wheatley, Peter Read and Allison Cadzow have each given excellent editorial advice. We were not able to follow all of it, however, and the faults of the book remain very much the responsibility of Cookie and myself. Emma and Judith Torzillo gave hours of their time for great photo research. Then Judith created an image database without which we would never have managed. Both Emma and Judith have found in Cookie a role model and hero, as well as a warm friend. There is a special thank you for Kevin’s family. Joy Steep and Ronnie, Kathy Kennedy and, (while she was able), Aunty Kit all brought love and enthusiasm to Cookie’s story. Joy has been a sustained support through every trauma, continuing to travel weekly to spend some time with Kevin. And for Judy Chester’s family, who have loved and cared for Cookie as their own: especially Judy’s sister, Janny and her husband Tommy Ely. Judy’s daughters Jody and Jannette have given warm and generous support which has been essential for Judy and for Cookie in these later years. This book is Judy’s book as much as it is Cookie’s. We hope it gives a glimpse of Judy’s amazing, courageous career as well as of their rich life together. Cookie & Heather viii An introduction to Cookie’s book Heather Goodall Cookie was still an organiser in the NSW Builders Labourers when I met him first in the early 1970s. I had just started at university then, a young and inexperienced student taking history but learning far more in the demonstrations against the Vietnam War and disrupting the visits of all-white sporting teams from South Africa. Meredith Burgmann, a fellow student and experienced activist, introduced me to Kevin when she took me to the Criterion, a city pub where her political and her union mates drank. Cookie stood out – but not because he was the centre of attention – in fact far from it. He was short and chunky, with big, twinkling eyes, a mop of unruly, curly hair, a beer in his hand and a ready laugh. What stood out was his warmth and his welcome for tentative newcomers like me. I came to realise he was always like this – part of the conversation but never running it. More often he was stirring it along – starting a story and then encouraging someone else to take it up and deliver the punchline. You’d find him passing around the beers or the smokes, drawing people into the joke from the outer edges of the crowd.