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Sir Douglas Ralph (Doug) Nicholls. Heroes in The Struggle for Justice - Doug Nicholls. Douglas Nicholls – A tribute to influential Australian Christians. Pastor Sir Douglas Nicholls (1906 – 1988 ) pastor, athlete, footballer, governor Pastor Sir Douglas Nicholl was born in Cumeroogunga, near the Murray River in New South Wales, and was Australia’s first Aboriginal state governor.

Douglas Nicholls – A tribute to influential Australian Christians

He was excellent at sport and played football for Fitzroy and Victoria. He was just as good at running and boxing. His great uncle, William Cooper, was an important Aboriginal leader. Pastor Sir Douglas Nicholls was born in Cumeroogunga, near the Murray River in New South Wales, and was Australia’s first Aboriginal state governor. Nicholls was a social worker and a minister of the Church of Christ who worked for the rights of Aboriginal people. A suburb in Canberra and a sports field in Melbourne are named after him. Lessons from Vincent Lingiari: a Voice is worth fighting for. Part 1 of nothing at all: A legislated First Nations Voice.

Lessons from Vincent Lingiari: a Voice is worth fighting for

If the Morrison government legislates the Voice without constitutionally enshrining it, it will not only ignore the Uluru Statement and the unprecedented consensus that made it, it will also ignore our nation's history. It will be setting us up to fail, because we know that a First Nations Voice established by an act of parliament alone, not protected by the constitution will one day be diminished or repealed at the whim of a future parliament. This has been the fate of all national Indigenous representative bodies. Part 2 of nothing at all: Symbolic constitutional recognition. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people did not support symbolic constitutional recognition in 1999, and again dismissed it in 2017 in the regional constitutional dialogues. Minister Wyatt has informed us that his government is walking away from the Uluru Statement, but we cannot let it. The Wave Hill walk-off is celebrated as a success.

Australians Together. Today, Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody’s song is known across the nation, although fewer people know the story of the Gurindji strikers it tells of.

Australians Together

Lyrics Gather round people I'll tell you a story An eight-year-long story of power and pride 'Bout British Lord Vestey and Vincent Lingiarri They were opposite men on opposite sides. Vincent Lingiari. Vincent Lingiari (1919?

Vincent Lingiari

-1988), Aboriginal stockman and land rights leader, was born in 1919, according to government records, at Victoria River Gorge, Northern Territory, son of Gurindji parents. Both his mother and his father, also Vincent Lingiari, were employed on the 3500-sq. mile (9065 km²) Vestey-owned cattle station, Wave Hill, established in 1883 by Nathaniel Buchanan. Called Tommy Vincent by his employers, he received no formal education. Aged about 12 he was absorbed into the station work at the stock camps, where cattle from the 80,000 herd were mustered, branded and drafted into mobs of 1200 bullocks to be driven to meatworks at Port Darwin. Although Lingiari became a head stockman at Wave Hill, he initially received no cash payment.

Sir Douglas Ralph (Doug) Nicholls. Sir Douglas Ralph Nicholls (1906-1988), footballer, pastor, activist and governor, was born on 9 December 1906 at Cummeragunja Aboriginal mission, New South Wales, fifth child of Herbert Nicholls, seasonal worker, and his wife Florence, née Atkinson.

Sir Douglas Ralph (Doug) Nicholls

Doug grew up at Cummeragunja, on the Murray River near Barmah, in its golden years of Aboriginal autonomy. Thomas Shadrach James gave him and other Yorta Yorta children a sound primary education, reinforcing the pride and self-assurance gained from their parents. As Doug grew, so too did the powers of the State’s Aboriginal Protection Board. Doug’s elder sister Hilda was removed about 1915. When Doug reached 14, he was moved off under the Aborigines Protection Act (1909) to find work.

Like other youths in the region Nicholls played Australian rules football, emulating kinsmen who had won local premierships since the 1890s. Doug was short at 5 ft 2 ins (158 cm), but muscular and lightning fast. Nicholls exhibited leadership qualities. The incredible story of Sir Doug Nicholls - Amnesty International Australia. 26 May 2017 “People would come from everywhere just to come up and shake Dad’s hand” — Aunty Pam Pederson Sir Doug Nicholls lived an incredible life.

The incredible story of Sir Doug Nicholls - Amnesty International Australia

He was born in 1906 at Cummeragunga on the land of his people, the Yorta Yorta people. His early life was lived under the Orwellian power and control of the Aborigines Protection Board. As a young boy, he witnessed his sister’s forced removal by government authorities: “They just came in and ruthlessly threw our girls into the car and their mothers hung to them, and I can see my mother hanging on to my sister, 16 years old, they threw her in the car.” Sir Doug Nicholls left school at the age of 14, when the Aborigines Protection Board forced him to leave his home and find work as a labourer. As he himself put it: “I was good, I wanted to be on top. Perkins, Charles. Vincent Lingiari the leader - History (6)