Cedric Wyatt (7 April 1940 – 25 September 2014) was an Australian public servant and indigenous rights advocate. A cousin of

Ken Wyatt Kenneth George Wyatt (born 4 August 1952) is a former Australian politician who was a member of the House of Representatives from 2010 to 2022, representing the Division of Hasluck for the Liberal Party. He is the first Indigenous Australian el ...

and the father of Ben Wyatt, both elected politicians, Wyatt worked in senior positions for

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

's Public Sector Commission and the federal

Australian Public Service The Australian Public Service (APS) is the federal civil service of the Commonwealth of Australia responsible for the public administration, public policy, and public services of the departments and executive and statutory agencies of the G ...

. Among other roles, he was the shire president of the

Shire of Cue The Shire of Cue is a local government area in the Mid West region of Western Australia, about east-northeast of the port city of Geraldton and about north-northeast of the state capital, Perth. The Shire covers an area of , and its seat of g ...

, in Western Australia's Mid West region, for a period in the early 2000s. Wyatt also stood unsuccessfully as the

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

candidate for the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

seat of

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

at the 1996 federal election.

Early life

Wyatt was born in 1940 to a white Australian father and an Aboriginal Australian mother. He was removed from his mother soon after he was born, and spent his early childhood at the

Moore River Native Settlement The Moore River Native Settlement was the name of the now defunct Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal settlement and internment camp located north of Perth and west of Mogumber, Western Australia, Mogumber in Western Australia, near the Source ...

. He attended school at

Clontarf Aboriginal College Clontarf Aboriginal College is a co-educational Aboriginal college for indigenous youth aged between 15 and 18 years, located in the Perth suburb of Waterford in Western Australia. Since 2000 the college has also been the centre for the Clontarf ...

and

Aquinas College, Perth , motto_translation = Truth ConquersMassam, p. 18 , location = Salter Point, Perth, Western Australia , country = Australia , patron = Saint Thomas Aquinas , coordinates = , pushpin_map = Australia Perth , pushpin_image ...

Working life

After serving in the

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

(RAAF) he moved to Papua New Guinea in 1963, where he worked as a teacher, principal and public servant until coming back to Australia in 1976. Wyatt's son, Ben Wyatt, who was later elected to Western Australia's Legislative Assembly, was born during his time in PNG. Between 1976 and 1979 he was CEO of the Western Australian Aboriginal Legal Service, later serving as Acting General Manager of the Aboriginal Development Commission. He was Commissioner of the Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority and CEO of its successor the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (now Department of Indigenous Affairs). In the early 2000s Wyatt was President of the Shire of Cue. In 2008 Wyatt came out of retirement to work as a Court Officer for the ALS in Laverton. He became the CEO of Jigalong Community, where he was a strong advocate for the rights of the Aboriginal community. Wyatt was once a Governor of the

University of Notre Dame Australia The University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA) is a national Roman Catholic private university with campuses in and in Western Australia and Sydney in New South Wales. The university also has eight clinical schools as part of its school of med ...

Political career

Wyatt was a member of the Labor Party until 1994, and during the 1980s unsuccessfully attempted to gain

preselection Preselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office. It is also referred to as candidate selection. It is a fundamental function of political parties. The presele ...

for a

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

seat. After he left the party, he said that "the Aboriginal vote has been taken for granted with the ALP thinking it is their private property", and described the supporters of Ian Taylor as "scheming thugs". Wyatt subsequently joined the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, and was preselected as the party's candidate in the

Division of Kalgoorlie The Division of Kalgoorlie was an Australian electoral division in the state of Western Australia, named after the city of Kalgoorlie. The Division was proclaimed in 1900 as one of the original 65 divisions to be contested at the first feder ...

at the 1996 federal election. He was "the only Aboriginal candidate endorsed by a major party".Media Release: 21 February 1996
Australian Parliamentary Library. Retrieved 27 April 2018. Despite a nation-wide swing to the Liberals, Wyatt polled just 24.3 percent of the vote, a negative swing of over 10 points. Labor's vote went down by almost 20 points, as the seat was won by a second Labor defector, independent Graeme Campbell.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wyatt, Cedric 1940 births 2014 deaths Indigenous Australians from Western Australia People educated at Aquinas College, Perth People from Perth, Western Australia Australian indigenous rights activists Mayors of places in Western Australia Liberal Party of Australia politicians