 "There is no greater sorrow on earth than the loss of one's native land." - Euripides 431 B.C. |
A Gallery in Tribute to Heroes of the Political Struggle for Aboriginal Rights: 1900 - 2000 |
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1904 - 1957 | ||
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• Born Cummeragunja 1904 • Associate of William Fergusen • Learns politics and history at squatters camp Salt Pan Creek near Sydney • Left wing, trade union and unemployed workers groups associations • 1936 Co-founder Aborigines Progressive Association • 1938 Co-organiser for Day of Mourning • 1938 Editor of Abo Call newspaper • 1939 Arrested after Cummeragunja walk-off • 1940 joined Army and served in WW2 • Moved to Melbourne 1952 • Died in accident Brunswick St. Fitzroy October 1957 | |
| Jack Patten (1904-57) was born in Cummeroogunja and settled at La Perouse in 1928. Unlike many Aboriginal people at the time, Patten attended high school and became an experienced organiser and public speaker, speaking regularly on Aboriginal rights at the Domain on Sunday afternoons, along with other Aboriginal activists like Pearl Gibbs and Tom Foster. Patten and William Ferguson published a manifesto "Aborigines Claim Citizenship Rights", organised the 1938 Day of Mourning Protest and lead an APA delegation to meet the Prime Minister. | ||