Charles Nelson Perkins
Charles Perkins was born in Alice Springs in Northern Australia on the 16th of June 1936. His father was a Kalkadoon and his mother was an Arrente (Read 5). Charles had ten siblings, nine of whom were from a different biological father from him. He was also a cousin to a fellow professional soccer player, John Moriarty. At the age of ten years, he was taken from the Alice Springs Telegraph Station Aboriginal Reserve to join St Francis House. Established by Percy Smith, St Francis House was a school whose main purpose was to educate Aboriginal male children (Read 7). While at this institution, Charles trained as a fitter and turner. It is also while at this institution that he developed his soccer skills. This talent was greatly influential in his life since Charles went on to become a professional soccer player. He played for Everton, an English football club that currently participates in the English Premier League. Later on, Charles joined the Metropolitan Business College in Sydney. Charles was the first individual from the Aboriginal community to ever graduate from a university in Australian history after graduating from the University of Sydney in 1966. In 1961, Charles got married to Eileen Munchenberg. He was blessed with two daughters and one son.
Fight for Equality and Human Rights
His passion as an activist fighting for the rights of indigenous people in Australia commenced during the 1960s. In 1961, he participated in the annual Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement where he had the opportunity to speak before the congregation and shared the experience of his visit to the Mungana reserve where white employees lived in decently built houses but their Aboriginal counterparts lived in tin shanties (Perkins 199). This was a clear indication of discrimination and double standards. This trend was not only experienced in this reserve but all around Australia. Indigenous people were discriminated against on social, political, and economic grounds.
While at the university, Charles was trying to devise a means through which he could air the grievance of indigenous people in Australia. In the process, he teamed up with another Aboriginal student who together formed the Student Action for Aborigines (SAFA) (Jupp 248). One of the greatest causes of action that SAFA was ever involved in was the organization of the famous freedom ride. This was a bus tour of western towns within the New South Wales region. Led by Charles, this tour comprised thirty students. In the course of their tour, they managed to expose the manner in which indigenous Australians were denied the right to use public and private facilities such as hotels, swimming pools and public halls (Hamnett and Freestone 9). This tour was inspired by the Freedom Riders who were part of the American Civil Rights Movement. In the course of their trip, the students experienced a de facto form of segregation between whites and indigenous people. In the process, the students protested and picketed while raising the challenges that indigenous people were facing and the need for their rights to be respected by the Australian government and the world at large (Saenz 604).
Their preferred locations for setting up their demonstrations were places where segregation was carried out. These demonstrations brought about mixed responses from the white community, some supporting their cause while others opposing them. Their visit to Moree managed to get the attention of the international community based on its outcome. Charles and his fellow protesters went to a swimming pool that had banned indigenous people from using the facility for the forty years that it had been operational. The local council put this ban. While trying to access the pool, the protesters faced physical resistance from local white residents, some of whom threw eggs and tomatoes at them. The media covered this event and as a result of public pressure, the local council lifted the ban. As the group was leaving town, they were intentionally hit by a car and pushed off the road. This incident was also reported by the media and made headlines in several newspapers such as the Sydney Morning Herald (Perkins 215). In some towns, Charles and his group did not carry out demonstrations. Instead, they interviewed the locals and affirmed the presence of a high level of segregation and discrimination of Aboriginal people in Australia.
The level of segregation and discrimination that indigenous people were experiencing in Australia could only be compared to the racism that African Americans were facing in the United States prior to the Human Rights Movement of the 1960s.
This trip was successful in exposing the level of discrimination against the indigenous people of Australia. The use of the media, especially television played a critical role in the achievement of this goal. Australians and the world at large came to understand the discrimination that was being experienced in country towns. As a result of the role that Charles played in organizing and leading this tour, he was nominated to be the national Aboriginal spokesman. He held this post up to his death in the year 2000.
Australia After the Referendum
After the referendum, Charles publicly criticized the Federal Council for its failure to ensure that indigenous Australians are not discriminated against on any grounds. According to him, lack of equality was an indicator that discrimination was still present in Australia (Burgmann 122). In 1965, Charles became the manager of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs and by1969, he was working for the Office of Aboriginal Affairs rising up the ranks to become the Secretary of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs by the mid-1980s. In his post-public life, Charles was still actively involved in the fight for equality and rights for indigenous people in Australia. He was a member of the Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander Commission (ATSIC) and was greatly involved in arts and sports as a means of creating awareness and the need to bring discrimination to an end in Australia. Despite his death in 2000, Charles will be remembered for the remarkable effort he put into the fight for fairness and equality of indigenous people in Australia.
Works Cited
Burgmann, Verity. Power, Profit and Protest: Australian Social Movements and Globalization, Victoria: Allen & Unwin, 2003. Print.
Jupp, James. The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Print.
Hamnett, Stephen and Robert Freestone. The Australian Metropolis: A Planning History, Sydney: Taylor & Francis, 2000. Print.
Perkins, Charles. A Bastard Like Me, Sydney: Ure Smith, 1975. Print.
Read, Peter. Charles Perkins: A Biography, Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books, 2001. Print.
Saenz, Rogello. The International Handbook of the Demography of Race and Ethnicity, Sydney: Springer Books. 2015. Print.