Ruby Florence Hammond (1936 - 16 April 1993) was an Australian Indigenous rights campaigner and the first Indigenous South Australian to seek election to the Federal Parliament. Hammond was born in 1936 in Blackford, an independent

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

community on the south-east coast of

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 was a member of the Tanganekald group of the Ngarrindjeri people of the Coorong. Ruby obtained school certificate in 1952 but the tough conditions at work in a shop made her touch racism against her. At the age of 32 she became a member of the

Council of Aboriginal Women of South Australia use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = Kent Town, Adelaide , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates = , burial_place = ...

and was active throughout the 1970s and 1980s in the pursuit of equal rights for Aboriginal people, including professional roles at the

Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement __NOTOC__ The Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement (ALRM) is an ATSILS (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services centre) in South Australia, providing pro bono legal services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the stat ...

, the Department of Personnel and Industrial Relations and the National Women's Consultative Council (successor to the National Women's Advisory Council, later Australian Council for Women). She acted as a consultant to the 1977

Australian Law Reform Commission The Australian Law Reform Commission (often abbreviated to ALRC) is an Australian independent statutory body established to conduct reviews into the law of Australia. The reviews, also called inquiries or references, are referred to the ALRC by ...

into Aboriginal Customary Laws which considered whether it was desirable to apply Aboriginal customary law to Aboriginals. The commission's report outlined Aboriginal customary laws were not generally recognised by general Australian law, yet were a significant influence on Aboriginal people. The report recommended that Aboriginal people should have the final say in the recognition of customary law. Hammond was appointed by the Whitlam Government to the Australian National Advisory Committee on International Women's year (1975). In 1980, Hammond advocated for a treaty which recognised Aboriginal

sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...

. Speaking as representative for the Aboriginal Land Rights Support Group, Hammond argued "we are the national minority; it is a treaty between two nations. The government must agree and recognise that we were here first". In 1988, she ran in the

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election ( Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election use ...

for the Federal seat of Port Adelaide, becoming the first Indigenous South Australian to do so. In 1990, Hammond was appointed Head of the Aboriginal Issues Unit for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Hammond served as Aboriginal Coordinator for the South Australian Department of Arts and Cultural Heritage from 1991 to 1993. In 1991, she joined with singer

Archie Roach Archibald William Roach (8 January 1956 – 30 July 2022) was an Australian singer, songwriter and Aboriginal activist. Often referred to as "Uncle Archie", Roach was a Gunditjmara and Bundjalung elder who campaigned for the rights of Abori ...

to publicly demand an inquiry into the Stolen Generations. In January 1993 Hammond was awarded the Australian Public Service Medal, which was presented to her by Her Excellency the

Governor of South Australia The governor of South Australia is the representative in South Australia of the Monarch of Australia, currently King Charles III. The governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as does the governor-gen ...

, Dame Roma Mitchell. She received a posthumous award for equal opportunity achievement in 1993.

Legacy

In 2002 an artwork recognising Hammond's contributions to the advancement of

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples o ...

was included in Reconciliation Place, Canberra. The artwork was designed by "Munnari" John Hammond, her son. The

electoral district of Hammond Hammond is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. It is named after Ruby Hammond, the first indigenous woman to stand for the Federal Parliament. Hammond is a rural electorate east and south-east of Adel ...

in South Australia is named in recognition of her contributions. Her name is also inscribed on the

Port Adelaide Workers Memorial The Port Adelaide Workers Memorial is a public memorial sculpture located in Port Adelaide, South Australia which recognises people who have made a significant contribution to promoting workers' rights in the Port Adelaide community. The memoria ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hammond, Ruby Australian human rights activists Women human rights activists 1993 deaths Ngarrindjeri 1936 births Recipients of the Public Service Medal (Australia) Indigenous Australian people