The Aborigines Progressive Association (APA [1] ) was an Aboriginal Australian rights organisation in New South Wales that was founded and run by William Ferguson and Jack Patten from 1937 to 1944, and was then revived from 1963 until around 1970 by Herbert Groves.
The Aborigines Progressive Association (APA [1] ) was established in 1937 by William Ferguson and Jack Patten in Dubbo, New South Wales. [2] [3] Ferguson led a group in the western part of the state, while Patten assembled an alliance of activists in the north-east. Both wings of the APA were involved in political organisation, rallies, and protests in both Aboriginal communities and reserves and major NSW centres such as Sydney. [4]
In 1938 the APA organised the Day of Mourning on Australia Day (26 January) of that year to protest the lack of basic human rights available to Aborigines. [1] It was held at the Australian Hall, Sydney. [4] The APA was joined by the Melbourne-based Australian Aborigines' League in staging the Day of Mourning to draw attention to the treatment of Aborigines and to demand full citizenship and equal rights. [5] Ferguson, APA’s organising secretary, said of the planned national day of mourning: "The aborigines do not want protection... We have been protected for 150 years, and look what has become of us. Scientists have studied us and written books about us as though we were some strange curiosities, but they have not prevented us from contracting tuberculosis and other diseases, which have wiped us out in thousands." [6]
The APA was wound down in 1944. [7]
The APA was revived in 1963 [7] by Herbert Stanley "Bert" Groves, [8] who had in 1956 co-founded the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship (AAF) with Pearl Gibbs and others. [9] [10] [lower-alpha 1] Gibbs was also a co-founder of this APA, and other prominent people associated with it were Joyce Clague, Dulcie Flower, Harriet Ellis, Ray Peckham, Chicka Dixon and Ken Brindle. [7]
Groves strongly believed that Aboriginal people should control this new incarnation of the APA. [10]
From 1964 to 1970 the APA under Groves published a quarterly journal called Churinga as the official journal of the APA. [12] [lower-alpha 2] is The journal, inspired by the 1938 journal Abo Call , was the inspiration for Churinga, aimed to inform non-Aboriginal people about issues such as Indigenous struggles for equal rights and land rights, as well as addressing the Aboriginal community in an effort to create solidarity and unity among the different groups. [10] From December 1970 to February 1972 it was continued as Alchuringa , published by Kevin Gilbert's short-lived Aboriginal National Theatre Foundation. [13]
Groves died on 28 December 1970, aged 63. [8]
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is a permanent protest occupation site as a focus for representing the political rights of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people. Established on 26 January 1972, and celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022, it is the longest continuous protest for Indigenous land rights in the world.
NAIDOC Week is an Australian observance lasting from the first Sunday in July until the following Sunday. The acronym NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines' and Islanders' Day Observance Committee. NAIDOC Week has its roots in the 1938 Day of Mourning, becoming a week-long event in 1975.
Salt Pan Creek is an urban watercourse of the Georges River catchment, located in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia.
The Freedom Ride of 1965 was a journey undertaken by a group of Aboriginal Australians in a bus across New South Wales, led by Charles Perkins. Its aim was to bring to the attention of the public the extent of racial discrimination in Australia, and it was a significant event in the history of civil rights for Indigenous Australians.
The Australian Abo Call, also known simply as Abo Call, was the first Aboriginal-focused publication printed in Australia, with all issues published in 1938.
The Day of Mourning was a protest held by Aboriginal Australians on 26 January 1938, the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet, which marked the beginning of the colonisation of Australia. It was declared to be a protest of 150 years of callous treatment and purposefully coincided with Australia Day celebrations. Day of Mourning protests have been held on Australia Day ever since 1938, though protests sharing its aims on this day are more commonly held under the names Invasion Day or Survival Day.
Pearl Mary (Gambanyi) Gibbs was an Indigenous Australian activist, and the most prominent female activist within the Aboriginal movement in the early 20th century. She was a member of the Aborigines Progressive Association (APA), and was involved with various protest events such as the 1938 Day of Mourning. She has strong associations with activists Jessie Street and Faith Bandler.
Kevin John Gilbert was an Aboriginal Australian author, activist, artist, poet, playwright and printmaker. A Wiradjuri man, Gilbert was born on the banks of the Lachlan River in New South Wales. Gilbert was the first Aboriginal playwright and printmaker. He was an active human rights defender and was involved in the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in 1972 as well as various protests to advocate for Aboriginal Australian sovereignty.
Charles "Chicka" Dixon was an Australian Aboriginal activist and leader.
John Thomas Patten was an Aboriginal Australian civil rights activist and journalist.
Cummeragunja Reserve or Cummeragunja Station, alternatively spelt Coomeroogunja, Coomeragunja, Cumeroogunga and Cummerguja, was a settlement on the New South Wales side of the Murray River, on the Victorian border near Barmah. It was also referred to as Cumeroogunga Mission, although it was not run by missionaries. The people were mostly Yorta Yorta.
William Cooper was an Aboriginal Australian political activist and community leader; the first to lead a national movement recognised by the Australian Government.
Charles Duguid was a Scottish-born medical practitioner, social reformer, Presbyterian lay leader and Aboriginal rights campaigner who lived in Adelaide, South Australia for most of his adult life, and recorded his experience working among the Aboriginal Australians in a number of books. He founded the Ernabella mission station in the far north of South Australia. The Pitjantjatjara people gave him the honorific Tjilpi, meaning "respected old man". He and his wife Phyllis Duguid, also an Aboriginal rights campaigner as well as women's rights activist, led much of the work on improving the lives of Aboriginal people in South Australia in the mid-twentieth century.
William Ferguson was an Aboriginal Australian leader.
William Townsend Onus Jnr was an Aboriginal Australian political activist, designer, and showman, also known for his boomerang-throwing skills. He was father of artist Lin Onus.
The Australian Aborigines' League was established in Melbourne, Australia, in 1933 by William Cooper and others, including Margaret Tucker, Eric Onus, Anna and Caleb Morgan, and Shadrach James. Cooper was secretary of the League.
The Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association (AAPA) was an early Indigenous Australian organisation focused on Aboriginal rights, founded in 1924 by Fred Maynard and based in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW). It ceased operations in 1927. The AAPA is known as the first Aboriginal activist group in Australia, with its membership roster peaking at over 600 members, with 13 branches and 4 sub-branches in NSW.
The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI), founded in Adelaide, South Australia, as the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (FCAA) on 16 February 1958, was a civil rights organisation which campaigned for the welfare of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, and the first national body representing Aboriginal interests. It was influential in lobbying in favour of the 1967 Referendum on Aboriginal Australians. It was renamed to National Aboriginal and Islander Liberation Movement (NAILM) in the early to mid 1970s, before disbanding in 1978.
The Australian Hall is a heritage-listed community building located at 150–152 Elizabeth Street, in the Sydney central business district, in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was the site of the Day of Mourning protests by Aboriginal Australians on 26 January 1938. It was also known as the Cyprus–Hellene Club until 1998. The property is owned by the Indigenous Land Corporation, a statutory corporation of the Australian Government. It was added to the Australian National Heritage List on 20 May 2008 and was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
Grace Bardsley (1920–1972) was an Australian Aboriginal rights activist and political activist. She was a founding member of Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship (AAF) and a member of the Aborigines Advancement League (AAL). She authored a book Aborigines and the Law covering assimilation problems mainly in the Sydney area. The Grace Bardsley Aboriginal Fund was established in her name by the AAF to help fund publications and other Aboriginal rights supporting projects.
This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 14, (Melbourne University Press), 1996
The Australian Aboriginal League float in the 1947 May Day procession. Identified, left to right: Miss Leila Lord, Mr Tasman Dohti (holding a sign which reads "Burn our welfare board"), Miss Alice Groves (holding a sign which reads "United war divided peace"), Miss Delys Cross, Mr Herbert Groves, wearing his Second World War uniform as protest; he served under the number NX200798 between 1943 and 1945 (holding a sign which reads "Free to fight but not to drink"), and Mr Athol Lester (holding a sign which reads "Our famous 1947 Australian All Blacks".)
Official journal of the Aborigines' Progressive Association. Journal Dates: No. 1 (1964)-no. 12 (May 1970)