William Ferguson (24 July 1882 – 4 January 1950) 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 Isl ...

leader. He was born at

Darlington Point Darlington Point is a small town on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River in the Riverina district of western New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the Murrumbidgee Council local government area. The centre of town is four kilometres fro ...

, Waddi,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, growing up near the Warengesda Mission near Cootamundra and, from 14 years after leaving school, worked with his father as a shearer, then

labourer A laborer (or labourer) is a person who works in manual labor types in the construction industry workforce. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which their only possession of significant material value is their labor. Industries e ...

and mailman in the west of the State. His first political involvements were as an organiser of shearers for the

Australian Workers' Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the 1880s and currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exer ...

and then secretary of a local branch of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

. From 1933 he lived at Dubbo with his wife, Margaret (née Gowans, also of Scot/Aboriginal heritage) and 12 children. While he had lived outside of the system of "protection" of Aboriginal people, he was well aware of the conditions under which other Aboriginal people lived. From 1936, when parliament amended the ''

Aborigines Protection Act 1909 The ''Aborigines Protection Act 1909'' was a New South Wales statute that repealed the ''Supply of Liquors to Aborigines Prevention Act 1867'' with the aim of providing for the protection and care of Aboriginal people in New South Wales, Australi ...

'' to increase its powers to govern Aboriginal people's lives, he began speaking and lobbying for civil rights, that he later called "citizen rights". He launched the

Aborigines Progressive Association The Aborigines Progressive Association (APA) was an Aboriginal Australian rights organisation in New South Wales that was founded and run by William Ferguson and Jack Patten from 1937 to 1944, and was then revived from 1963 until around 1970 b ...

(APA) at Dubbo in 1937 and was a witness before the

NSW Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Hous ...

's select committee on the administration of the ''Aborigines Protection Act'' (which failed to initiate any reform). With

William Cooper William Cooper may refer to: Business *William Cooper (accountant) (1826–1871), founder of Cooper Brothers * William Cooper (businessman) (1761–1840), Canadian businessman *William Cooper (co-operator) (1822–1868), English co-operator * Will ...

and John Patten, he organised a

Day of Mourning A national day of mourning is a day or days marked by mourning and memorial activities observed among the majority of a country's populace. They are designated by the national government. Such days include those marking the death or funeral of ...

for Aboriginal people on

Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port ...

1938. ''Aborigines Claim Citizen Rights!'' was the pamphlet that he wrote with Patten to promote their cause. He organised five APA conferences in country towns from 1938. He also was elected a member of the Aborigines Welfare Board, after the government responded to APA criticism by deciding to have two Aboriginal people on the board. While on the board he was shocked by the complaints received about conditions in

Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th c ...

s, and attempted to force some changes. In 1949 he went to lobby the national Chifley Labor government in Canberra as a representative of the

Australian Aborigines' League The Australian Aborigines' League was established in Melbourne, Australia, in 1933 by William Cooper and others, including Margaret Tucker, Eric Onus, Anna and Caleb Morgan, and Shadrach James (son of Thomas Shadrach James and brother-in-law of C ...

, asking for many administrative reforms, which he had drafted. The Minister for the interior, Herbert Johnson, was unresponsive. Ferguson was furious, resigned from the Labor party, and stood as an Independent candidate for Parliament in the 10 December 1949 Australian federal election in his electorate of Lawson, but drew only a small number of votes. He collapsed after a final speech before the election, and died of hypertensive heart failure on 4 January 1950 in

Dubbo Base Hospital Dubbo () is a city in the Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the Newell, Mitchell, and Go ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, William 1882 births 1950 deaths Australian indigenous rights activists Australian trade unionists People from New South Wales