Kangkushot

An updated edition of an epic and remarkable story. In this powerful memoir, Peter Coppin’s story emerges; told in fragments, moments of time and memories.

A senior Nyamal lawman, Coppin was born in Yarrie country in Western Australia’s Pilbara. His was a life of danger, drama and hardship; his people forced to work on pastoral stations for meagre rations, their lives subject to the whims of white pastoralists, government agents and legislators.

But Coppin dreamed of a life for his people where they could access education and health services, and control their destinies. Despite great danger to themselves, he and others took part in the first major Aboriginal strike in Australia, the Pilbara Strike in 1946. For Peter Coppin the land holds mysteries; it’s special and lifegiving and some of it, sacred.