The North Australian Workers' Union (NAWU) was a

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

between 1927 and 1972. It was a publisher of a newsletter in Darwin, the ''

Northern Standard The ''Northern Standard'', also known by the uniform title ''Northern standard (Darwin, N.T.)'', was a newspaper published in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, from 1920 or 1921 to 1955. The paper was published by the North Australian Wor ...

''.

History

The NAWU was formed in 1927 via the merger of the North Australian Industrial Union and the Northern Territory Workers' Union. It identified as an "independent union" (distinguishing itself from a previous Northern Territory branch of the

Australian Workers' Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoralism, pastoral and mining industries in the late 1880s and it currently has approximately 80,000 ...

) but did affiliate with the

Australian Council of Trade Unions The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), originally the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated trade union, unions and eight t ...

. The union's inaugural secretary was Robert Toupein, a former mayor of Darwin. The union initially practised racial segregation, with membership barred to anyone "who is a Chinese, Japanese, Kanaka, or Afghan, or who belongs to any colored race". However, exemptions were made for Maori, African-American, and mixed-race workers. In 1930, Toupein and union organiser Owen Rowe represented the NAWU executive at a conference on Indigenous labour organised by home affairs minister

Arthur Blakeley Arthur Blakeley (3 July 1886 – 27 June 1972) was an Australian politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1917 to 1934, representing the Labor Party. He was the party's deputy leader from 1928 to 1929 and served as Minister ...

. While Toupein had previously criticised the exploitation of Indigenous workers, at the conference he argued that assimilation and wage equality were not possible for "full-blood" Indigenous people and that segregation should be introduced, whereby Indigenous people would be removed from pastoral stations and placed on reserves for their own "protection". The NAWU did agree that "

half-caste Half-caste is a term used for individuals of Multiracial, multiracial descent. The word ''wikt:caste, caste'' is borrowed from the Portuguese or Spanish word ''casta'', meaning race. Terms such as ''half-caste'', ''caste'', ''quarter-caste'' an ...

" (racially mixed) Indigenous people should be granted equal wages in line with the eliminationist views advocated by Cecil Cook, to encourage their integration into white society. By the late 1930s, the NAWU had accepted a number of half-caste Indigenous people as members. The union intervened on their behalf to participate in local society, including opposing moves to segregate the

Northern Territory Football League The Northern Territory Football League (NTFL) is an Australian rules football competition, operating in Greater Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and the Northern Territory, formerly run by the Northern Territory Football League Incorporated a ...

and supporting their right to drink alcohol at public hotels. In 1937, the union intervened on the behalf of half-caste waterside workers, when Northern Territory administrator

Aubrey Abbott Charles Lydiard Aubrey Abbott (4 May 1886 – 30 April 1975) was an Australian politician and public servant. He served as administrator of the Northern Territory from 1937 to 1946, a period encompassing the bombing of Darwin and other Japanese ...

argued before the local arbitration court that their wages should be lowered due to their racial status. The NAWU ultimately removed its racial bar in 1948 and allowed all Indigenous Australians to take up membership, despite the opposition of federal interior minister Herbert Johnson and departmental officials in the Native Affairs branch in Darwin. The union was involved in

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

' working conditions on

cattle station In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm ( station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a '' grazier''. The largest cattle stati ...

s in the 1960s. In 1965 the Union applied to the

Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission The Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC), known from 1956 to 1973 as the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission and from 1973 to 1988 as the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, was a tribunal with powe ...

to amend the Northern Territory's pastoral award to remove sections discriminating against Aboriginal workers. The pastoralists resisted strongly; the Commission eventually agreed, but in consideration of the pastoralists' concerns of what it would cost them, delayed implementation by three years. This delay helped lead towards the

Gurindji strike The Wave Hill walk-off, also known as the Gurindji strike, was a walk-off and strike by 200 Gurindji stockmen, house servants and their families, starting on 23 August 1966 and lasting for seven years. It took place at Wave Hill, a cattle stati ...

(Wave Hill walk-off). The union was deregistered in 1972. Its waterside section became the Darwin branch of the Waterside Workers' Federation, while the rest of the union amalgamated into the

Federated Miscellaneous Workers' Union The Federated Miscellaneous Workers' Union (FMWUl commonly known as the 'Missos') was an Australian trade union from 1915 to 1992. It represented an extremely diverse and disparate range of occupations, but its core support came from workers empl ...

History

References

Further reading