Margaret Tucker

Margaret ( Lilardia ) Elizabeth Tucker ( * 1904, † 1996) was a political activist in the Aborigines. Lilardia was her Aboriginal name. About it the first autobiography of a woman's Aboriginal people was brought out. In addition, she was awarded the Order of Merit.

Margaret Tucker was born in the Warrangesda mission and spent her childhood in the Cummeragunja mission and Moonaculla Mission in New South Wales. Her father was William Clements, a Wiradjuri, and her mother Teresa a Yulupna. At the age of 13 years Tucker was taken away from her mother and placed in a home by Cootamundra.

In the 1930s, she participated in the campaigns for the rights of Aboriginal people with William Cooper, Bill and Eric Onus and Doug Nicholls. In 1932 she co-founded the Australian Aborigines League and was involved on 26 January 1938 at the preparation and conduct of the Day of Mourning, the 1940 was also a national holiday. In 1939 she organized concerts for the strikers of Cumeroogunga and was therefore called the black Communist.

Tucker founded the United Council of Aboriginal and Islander Women in the 1960s. She was furthermore the first Aboriginefrau who was appointed in 1965 the Aborigines Welfare Board in Victoria and the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs in 1968.

On January 1, 1968, she received a high decoration, the Member of the Order of the British Empire ( Civil), for her contribution to the community of the Aborigines.

Margaret Tucker published in 1977 Biography If Everyone Cared was the first autobiography, which was laid over a Aboriginefrau.