Charles Perkins (Aboriginal activist)
Charles Nelson Perkins ( b. 1936 in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, † 19 October 2000 in Sydney ) was a political activist in the Aborigines, a football player (soccer) and football teacher. He was the first Aborigine in Australia an academic degree, earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1965.
Life
His mother was descended from the Arrernte Aboriginal and his father from the Kalkadoon. In an area controlled by the police camps in Alice Springs he lived with eleven brothers and one sister. At the age of ten years he lived away from his family in a youth center, the St. Francis House in Adelaide. As a football player, he traveled to England, and when he returned to Australia in 1960, he played in the top league of New South Wales until he finished his career in 1965. He pursued his education in 1961.
He was married and had two daughters and a son.
He was Buried the basis of merit for the Aborigines in a state funeral.
Policy
As developed in the early 1960s a political movement in Australia against the prevailing racism rates, the Aborigines of the American Civil Rights Movement Freedom Ride, which had arisen in the Southern United States in 1961. The exclusion of Aboriginal people in events, swimming pools, movie theaters and hotels Prost led to Estonians. The Student Action for Aborigines, in which Perkins was one of the leaders, went on 20 February 1965 a bus to Moree to perform an action against the 40-year ban on access for Aboriginal people in the local swimming pool. This protest took place national and international attention, and the student group led further actions in Lismore, Bowraville and Kempsey by before she returned to Sydney. Through these measures, Charles Perkins was very well known and widely recognized national leader of the Aborigines.
As the referendum on the inclusion of Aboriginal people in the census was conducted by the Australian Parliament in 1967, Perkins was the organizer of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs, which led the referendum with a rate of 90.77 percent approval to success.
In 1969 he was in 1981 appointed Senior Research Officer of the Office of Aboriginal Affairs as Chairman of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, the first Aborigine a federal local government, and as Chairman of the Aboriginal Development Commission in the years 1981 and 1984. He was one of the sharpest critics of Australian government policy. In 1989 he was given the chairmanship of the Arrernte Council of Central Australia, and he was elected to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission for the central Northern Territory and the Deputy Chairperson of the Commission in 1993.
Awards
Perkins received numerous awards for his achievements:
- Jaycees Young Man of the Year (1966 )
- Aboriginal of the Year (1993 )
- Officer of the Order of Australia (1987 )
- Honorary doctorate from the University of Western Sydney ( 1998)
- Honorary Doctor of Law from the University of Sydney
Since 2001, he prices of the University of Sydney The Dr Charles Perkins Memorial Oration and Dr Charles Perkins AO Memorial Prize will be awarded in honor. The National Trust of Australia appointed him to the National Living Treasures Australia.