It was years after the US civil rights movement, the Charles Perkins Freedom Rides and the 1967 referendum, but taking their families out to a restaurant was still an act of defiance for some Australians in the 1970s.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains images and names of people who have died.
Siblings Dianne Appleby, and Judy and Joe Edgar, remember the day 50 years ago, in 1971, when their father, Tommy Edgar, and family friend Albert Barunga, decided to take a stand against racial segregation in Broome, in the far north of Western Australia.
"I think it all started before we even went to the restaurant," Judy recalls.
"Uncle Albert Barunga and his wife Aunty Pat, Mum and Dad, us children, [were] sitting together in the kitchen.
"Uncle Albert actually suggested, 'Tell me, why don't we go out to eat?'. And of course Dad said, 'Yeah, good idea.' And I'm looking at my mum's face and she's sort of not too sure."
Judy's mum was right to be concerned about the seemingly innocuous suggestion of eating dinner in a restaurant because, at the time, it was generally understood that Aboriginal people were still not accepted in restaurants in the Kimberley.
"Dad got really dressed up to go to the restaurant that night, and even put on his suit and a clean shirt with a tie."
Long time coming
The simple act of dressing for dinner that night foreshadowed the arrival of civil rights in Australia's remote north west.
In a part of Australia where slavery continued long after it was outlawed in the USA, and Aboriginal people were hunted and massacred by police well into the 20th century, standing up to racial segregation in the 1970s challenged the foundations of society in Australia's north.
But Albert Barunga and Tommy Edgar's lives had prepared them well.
Both men were born on country around 1910 and grew up with their traditional languages and culture — Mr Barunga on Worrorra country east and north of Broome, and Mr Edgar on Karajarri country south of Broome.
They both separately assisted when Australia came under attack in WWII with Mr Barunga guiding naval vessels along the Kimberley coast, and Mr Edgar rescuing survivors of the Japanese air raid on Broome.
They became firm friends and shared a passion for their traditional languages and cultures, and advocated for the rights of all Aboriginal people.
The men started travelling to Canberra where they met Charles Perkins and joined the National Aboriginal Conference, and also went overseas, where they saw how other Indigenous people were standing up to oppression.
Ideas from the US civil rights movement and Charles Perkins' Freedom Rides were finally filtering back to the far north of Western Australia where there were leaders waiting to take action.
So when Mr Barunga suggested eating in a restaurant in Broome, and Mr Edgar agreed and put on his suit, it was a deliberate act that had been decades in the making.
'What's going to happen?'
When the two families arrived at a Chinese restaurant, which has long since closed down, the children instinctively behaved the way Aboriginal people were expected to.
"We, as kids, went to that restaurant and immediately went out the back because that's where we always went to get our takeaways," Joe said.
"Dad and Mr Barunga went to the front door and were confronted by the restaurateur and told they weren't allowed to enter the main restaurant."
While Mr Edgar and Mr Barunga knew the days of segregation in the Kimberley were numbered, the restaurant owner was in no doubt that they had no right to enter a restaurant.
"He was yelling at them, 'No, you cannot come in here. No blackfellas here. Get out, I'll call the police'," Judy said.
Even 50 years later, the emotion is palpable as the siblings remember being children and watching the police arrive in a paddy wagon to arrest their father and Mr Barunga.
"I saw the police jump out … and threw them, they didn't resist, into the back of the cage," Judy said.
Dianne, Judy and Joe all now have leadership roles in modern Broome, and regularly speak at events about the strength of their community and culture.
It makes it hard to imagine a time when they were children, frightened as their father was arrested for standing up for such a basic human right.
"I was really afraid, afraid for what might happen to our father and Mr Barunga, because we were always oppressed," Joe said.
"We were always told to be mindful of where you were at any time, and what you were doing, it was a very scary time."
One small step
It would be nice to think that Mr Edgar and Mr Barunga smashed racism and ended segregation that day in 1971, but the truth is they were released the following day without charge, and life in Broome continued on, seemingly unchanged.
But 50 years later, it's clear that radical change was underway.
Tommy Edgar and his wife played pivotal roles in establishing native title for the Yawuru people of Broome and the Karajarri people south of Broome, as well as preserving traditional culture and language.
And Mr Barunga is widely recognised for his work preserving the Worrorra language and establishing the Mowanjum community.
Just six years after being arrested for daring to enter a Broome restaurant, Mr Barunga and his wife met with Queen Elizabeth II in Perth.
He presented the Queen with a slate plaque beautifully inscribed by Mr Barunga with a hunting scene, which is now displayed in the Grand Vestibule of Windsor Castle.
The two men left great legacies in the Kimberley, legacies that in a small part were forged when they took a stand in a small-town restaurant.
"They both had discussed at the table before the event, that they'd been to other places around the country, they could walk into a restaurant and not get tapped on their shoulders about their Aboriginality," Judy said.
