Jack Patten

John Thomas Patten, called Jack Patten ( born March 27, 1904 in the Cummeragunja Mission in New South Wales, † October 12, 1957 in Melbourne, Victoria) was an Australian Aboriginal activist.

Life

Patten was the son of John Thomas Patten and his wife, Christina, Mary, who lived in the Cummeragunja Mission in New South Wales. After completion of the mission school Patten went to school in Tumbarumba and West Wyalong. He applied unsuccessfully for the Royal Australian Navy and worked in the city council of Sydney. This he left in 1927 to earn his living as a boxer. Selina Avery, one of the Aboriginal Bundjalung, he married in 1931 and had with her seven children.

Politician

In the 1930s, Patten became known as a speaker and organizer for the rights of Aboriginal people. He often spoke at meetings as well as Pearl Gibbs and Tom Foster. Patten and William Ferguson published the manuscript, Aborigines Claim Citizenship Rights, and they organized the 1938 protest of the Day of Mourning. When he came in February 1939 after the Cummeragunja mission where Aboriginal conducted the first mass strike, the manager of the mission refused him access. Then he came for a short time in prison.

He was co-founder and member of the Aborigines Progressive Association and as delegation members here, who met the Prime Minister of Australia.

Patten published the first monthly magazine subscription call, however, appeared to September 1938 only in six editions in April and was subsequently adjusted for lack of money.

Patten died after a car accident in October 1957 in Melbourne.