The Webworld of Charlie Ward

The Junction

Writer, historian and environmental activist based in the Northern Territory of Australia. This blog delivers my articles, rants, raves and musings with a dash of literary mustard. Find out about my Prime Minister’s History Award shortlisted book A Handful of Sand: the Gurindji Struggle, After the Walk-off here too.

Contact: groundlevel@protonmail.com

6 Responses to “The Junction”

Mr. Charles,
Nice blog. Can’t wait to read your communiqués from the red-dead-heart-centre-country. I’d like to see you write something on ‘Wake in Fright’… Next time you’re in Melbourne remind me to take you to Famine Rock. I think you’d like it.
Kele,
Gibbo

Gibbo said this on February 22, 2011 at 5:14 am | Reply
Johnf824 said this on May 17, 2014 at 2:17 pm | Reply
I have read Charlie Ward’s book: a handful of sand, the GurindJi struggle after the walk off
over the weekend
It is very detailed and gives a good sense of the changing political context that Lingiari and his colleagues hat to contend with- along with the changing interests and lifestyle of the following generation. Well worth a read, especially in the context of govt’s trying to close remote communities and portrayal of them as ‘lifestyle choices’

Stephen Hall said this on November 14, 2016 at 10:58 am | Reply
Hi Charlie, I have read the book and enjoyed it immensely. Amazing depth in the narrative. Thank you for the mention in the foreword. Kind regards, Warwick Neilley

Warwick Neilley said this on December 9, 2016 at 8:51 pm | Reply
Hi, Charlie: Greetings from the frozen wastes of Canada. Just got your book through our Uni’s interlibrary loan. Wonderful detail, wonderful telling of the story, that needs to be told, and understood, and learned from, it that is at all possible. And as your final section shows – the relationships among people have now changed and will continue to change in ways impossible to foresee back then.

I would very much like to “chat” with you somehow, since back around 1988-90 I was working on matters extraordinarily close to the subject of your book. I have for the first time since 1993 opened a large box of materials I had collected, interviews, photos, etc, when I was working on the story of the people at Newcastle Waters and Elliott. Had whole sections written, including their efforts to keep the Aged and Infirm camp open at the NW town-site, and the Newcastle Waters walk-off in April of 1972, when they used the same camp location – then Union Camp – plus the Elliott school matter, the introduction of community government, attempts to get housing and other improvements into the camps (somehow nothing changes I see from reports in the NT paper in 2015!), etc. Even had the Director of NARU, where I was based each year, read the draft manuscript. Was to be one of NARU’s monographs. Had done work in the ’80s on Pine Creek town-camps at the request of the folks there. Did work on the intro. of community government in the smallest of towns (now shifted from the local to the regional – shire govts. I see!). Then got drawn in for two dry seasons and one full year to look at the introduction of community planning into Aboriginal communities across the country. because I someone found that I had worked with First Nations and Inuit communities in Canada when a form of community planning was introduced here in the late ’70s/early ’80s. So the NW-Elliott work ended up in an unopened box, never to emerge until a couple of weeks ago. In 1993 I came back to Canada – got married. And, to my great regret, have never been able to get back to the Territory.
Many of the people you interviewed and worked with are the same folks that I did too. And piles of the same or similar docs. that you have used.
“Crossed Tracks” was initially intended to be a pretty large “book” but even by 1990 I had pared it down to the efforts of people in the two towns to make what they hoped would be positive changes in their lives.
No surprise, then, that I would really like to be in contact with you. Find out what you are working on now. And, congratulate you on elaborating the experience of the Gurindji walk-off and what followed in such a way that sings the reader along. Yes, sings. Jackie Wolfe, Canada

Jackie Wolfe, Guelph, Ontario, Canada said this on February 4, 2017 at 2:43 am | Reply
Why can’t I just buy all of your books now? I can’t wait to get my hands on that book and any other books you have written 😂😂 I will never find that book anywhere in Charleston, WV, people still think we’re still part of Virginia! I’ll bet you are quite the Character! Would love be to sit down with you and your family over a bottle of wine! What an honor that would be! I’m ten years your senior! I have loved following you! Never know what to expect😂😂💕 Seriously, how can I order that book and any others you have? How cool that the truth is rolling out as we speak. There are those inside the Government that are planning to take part in the BLM Antifa take over! Saw a leaked tweet earlier, one of them is a female attorney, smart intelligent black women. Wonder if DJT knows? He’ll be safe wherever he is! They are planning a blood bath! About buying that book Charlie? Love, Mary Marsha Poffenbarger

Marsha P said this on January 15, 2021 at 3:09 pm | Reply