Fitting tributes to Duguid legacy

Three generations on, Indigenous leader Professor Tom Calma will pay tribute to the legacy of Aboriginal rights campaigners Charles and Phyllis Duguid.

University of Canberra Chancellor, Professor Tom Calma AO, will review the significant events that have shaped Indigenous rights since Dr Duguid OBE and Mrs Duguid OAM started campaigning for legislative reforms and fairer work policies in Victoria and South Australia in the 1930s.

Professor Calma, an Aboriginal Elder from the Kungarakan tribal group and a member of the Iwaidja tribal group in the Northern Territory, has been involved in Indigenous affairs at a local, state, national and international level and has been instrumental in campaigns such as Close the Gap.

He will critique contemporary Indigenous campaigns at the Duguid Memorial Lecture.

After more than 40 years in the public sector, he is Chancellor of the University of Canberra and sits on a number of boards and committees with the focus of improving the lives of all Australians and particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

The biennial Duguid Memorial Lecture, co-hosted by UniSA and Flinders University, will be held at the Hawke Building UniSA City West from 6-8pm on Wednesday 30 November and celebrates the efforts of the Duguids in two ways.

Not only will the lecture expand on the Duguids’ efforts from the 1930s to the 1980s but includes the official launch of The Long Campaign: the Duguid Memorial Lectures 1994 – 2014, a collection of Duguid lectures.

The book covers the Duguid lectures given by distinguished Indigenous educators and community leaders. It is edited and introduced by Professor Gus Worby, Associate Professor Simone Ulalka Tur and Yunggorendi Student Engagement Associate Lecturer Tristan Kennedy, all from the Office of Indigenous Strategy and Engagement at Flinders.

Chapters address education policy at all levels, Indigenous health, reconciliation, community governance and national representation, Indigenous knowledge and philosophy, and the power of the written and spoken word in Indigenous literature and storytelling.

Charles and Phyllis Duguid saw these things as crucial to what they called the ‘advancement’ of Indigenous peoples. Their work led to the formation of an organisation that was to become the Aborigines Advancement League.

In 1994, the Aborigines Advancement League made a substantial gift to the University of South Australia and Flinders to provide study grants for Aboriginal graduates as well as to conduct a memorial lecture every two years.

Date: Wednesday 30 November 2016, 6-8pm Venue: Kerry Packer Civic Gallery, Level 3, Hawke Building, UniSA City West RSVP online

 

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