Aborigines Progressive Association

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.

Proclamation of the Day of Mourning
Not to be confused with Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association or New South Wales Aborigines Protection Association.

First incarnation

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]

Second incarnation

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]

See also

Footnotes
  1. Herbert Groves had in 1947 taken part in a May Day parade on the Australian Aboriginal League float, wearing his service uniform as a protest.[11] Groves was one three Aboriginal people who attended the FCAATSI conference in Adelaide in 1958, along with Doug Nicholls and Charles Perkins. His wife was called Renata.[10]
  2. See Churinga (Tjurunga) for the meaning of the word.

References
  1. Coghill, Leonie (1997). Footprints: to country, kin and cultures. Curriculum Corporation. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-86366-367-0.
  2. Attwood, Bain; Markus, Andrew (1999). The struggle for aboriginal rights: a documentary history. Allen & Unwin. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-86448-584-4.
  3. Lake, Marilyn (2002). Faith: Faith Bandler, gentle activist. Allen & Unwin. p. 54. ISBN 978-1-86508-841-9.
  4. Hinkson, Melinda; Harris, Alana (2001). Aboriginal Sydney: a guide to important places of the past and present. Aboriginal Studies Press. p. 22–24. ISBN 978-0-85575-370-2.
  5. "Australian Aborigines' League". Collaborating for Indigenous Rights. National Museum of Australia. Archived from the original on 18 March 2012. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
  6. "BLACK MAN'S VIEWPOINT". The Mercury. Hobart, Tas.: National Library of Australia. 13 November 1937. p. 15. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  7. "Collaborating for Indigenous Rights 1957-1973". Archived from the original on 8 November 2017. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  8. Duncan, Alan T. (1996). "Herbert Stanley (Bert) Groves". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 2 October 2022. This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 14, (Melbourne University Press), 1996
  9. "Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship". A History of Aboriginal Sydney. 29 June 2020. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  10. Burrows, Elizabeth Anne (2010). Writing to be heard: the Indigenous print media's role in establishing and developing an Indigenous public sphere (PhD). Griffith University. doi:10.25904/1912/3292. Retrieved 2 October 2022. PDF
  11. The Australian Aboriginal League float in the 1947 May Day procession., retrieved 2 October 2022, 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".)
  12. Aborigines Progressive Association (1964), "Churinga" (catalogue entry), Trove, Breda Publications, retrieved 2 October 2022, Official journal of the Aborigines' Progressive Association. Journal Dates: No. 1 (1964)-no. 12 (May 1970)
  13. National Aboriginal Theatre Foundation (Australia); Aboriginal Tourist and Economic Development Association (Australia) (1971), Alchuringa (catalogue entry), Breda Publications, retrieved 2 October 2022 – via Trove
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