Archie Barton was an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

political activist and land-rights campaigner. He played a key role in the 20-year campaign in the

Maralinga Tjarutja The Maralinga Tjarutja, or Maralinga Tjarutja Council, is the corporation representing the traditional Anangu owners of the remote western areas of South Australia known as the Maralinga Tjarutja lands. The council was established by the ''Mara ...

people regaining ownership of their land, following the

British nuclear tests at Maralinga Between 1956 and 1963, the United Kingdom conducted seven nuclear tests at the Maralinga site in South Australia, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area about north west of Adelaide. Two major test series were conducted: Operation Buffalo in 1956 ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, and having the test sites cleaned up,Mark McGinness, (3 December 2008), Hero of the Maralinga people: Archie Barton 1936–2008, ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', Sydney, p. 20
/ref>
/ref> and establishing Oak Valley with funds provided as compensation for the dispossession of the Maralinga people from their landsSandra McKay, (20 December 1997), The dispossessed, ''The Age'', Melbourne, p. 4
/ref>

Work

Archie Barton had a varied work history: *at around twelve years he became a rural worker, at Bon Bon Station near

Coober Pedy Coober Pedy () is a town in northern South Australia, north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. Coober Pedy is ...

, later a railway fettler, and then digging trenches for the South Australian Gas Company in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. *mid-1970s he was in Port Augusta working for an Aboriginal

alcohol rehabilitation Drug rehabilitation is the process of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and street drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, heroin or amphetamines. The general inte ...

service. * 1981 he became community adviser to the Maralinga people, then based at

Yalata Yalata is an Aboriginal community located west of Ceduna and south of Ooldea on the edge of the Nullarbor Plain in South Australia. It lies on the traditional lands of the Wirangu people, but the settlement began as Yalata Mission in the ea ...

*a director of

Imparja Television Imparja Television (IMP) is an independent Australian television station servicing over , across six states and territories: Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. It is based in Alice Spring ...

*1985 he became administrator of the new

Council following the Land Rights Act of 1984 **He was a witness to the

McClelland Royal Commission The McClelland Royal Commission or Royal Commission into British nuclear tests in Australia was an inquiry by the Australian government in 1984–1985 to investigate the conduct of the British in its use, with the then Australian government's p ...

of 1984–1985 into the nuclear tests. **He represented the Maralinga people in London, as stated in the Sydney Morning Herald obituary 'In 1991 and 1992 he accompanied two elders and their counsel, Andrew Collett, to negotiate with the British government. He met the 9th Earl of Arran, then parliamentary under-secretary of the armed forces, and the army minister, Viscount Cranborne, whom Barton presented with two bags of the red plutonium-tainted sand.' **In 2005 he was found to have misappropriated $230,000 of community funds. Age and a misplaced cultural obligation to relatives were given as an explanation for his dishonesty. Barton was dismissed and a controller appointed. The Maralinga Tjarutja Council was established in 1984 with funds provided as compensation for the dispossession of the Maralinga people from their lands following the

Nuclear tests Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...

. In 1995, the Australian Government admitted it had been complicit in the testing and paid $13.5 million into a trust fund for compensation and to cover further clean-up.

Recognition

*An original member of the

Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Reconciliation in Australia is a process which officially began in 1991, focused on the improvement of race relations between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia and the rest of the population. The Council for Aboriginal ...

*South Australian Aboriginal of the Year in 1988 *Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

in 1989 *presented with an Honorary Doctorate from the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

in 1996 *2004–2005 member of the

National Indigenous Council The National Indigenous Council (NIC) was an appointed advisory body to the Australian Government through the Minister's for Indigenous Affairs' Taskforce on Indigenous Affairs (MTIA) established in November 2004 (not to be confused with the ea ...

Personal life

He was born to a

Pitjantjatjara The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are vari ...

woman at the Barton Railway Siding,

on the east–west

Trans-Australian Railway The Trans-Australian Railway, opened in 1917, runs from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, crossing the Nullarbor Plain in the process. As the only rail freight corridor between Western Australia and the easter ...

line in March 1936, his father is not known but is believed to have been a white railway worker. As a child he also spent time at

Ooldea Ooldea is a tiny settlement in South Australia. It is on the eastern edge of the Nullarbor Plain, west of Port Augusta on the Trans-Australian Railway. Ooldea is from the bitumen Eyre Highway. Being near a permanent waterhole, Ooldea Soak, th ...

, a nearby Aboriginal mission in the Maralinga area. He was a victim of the

Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church miss ...

. At the age of five years he was placed into the care of the

Christian Brethren The Open Brethren, sometimes called Christian Brethren, are a group of Evangelicalism, Evangelical Christianity, Christian churches that arose in the late 1820s as part of the Assembly Movement within the Plymouth Brethren tradition. They origina ...

's Umeewarra Children's Home at

Port Augusta Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. Formerly a port, seaport, it is now a road traffic and Junction (rail), railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulf's head and about ...

, one obituary states that 'When captured he was hiding behind the skirts of the legendary Daisy Bates'. He was a gifted

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er. By his 30s he was addicted to alcohol to such that a doctor gave him six months to live, in response he gave up drinking. At one time he contracted

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

and spent a year in a sanitorium. He had a long relationship with Mary Harrison. After that relationship ended, he lived in sheds in Whyalla and Port Augusta. Archie Barton died on 18 October 2008 in Ceduna and was buried at Oak Valley.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barton, Archie 1936 births 2008 deaths People from South Australia Australian indigenous rights activists Members of the Order of Australia Members of the Stolen Generations