Charles Frederick Maynard

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Charles Frederick Maynard (born July 4, 1879 in Hinton , New South Wales , † September 9, 1946 in Rydalmere ) was the founder of the first Aboriginal political organization , the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association (AAPA), in February 1925.

Early life

Maynard was the third child of William Maynard, an English-born laborer and Woonarua Aboriginal Mary Phillips. After his mother's death in 1894, he and his siblings were brought up strictly according to his faith by a Protestant pastor in Maitland .

Profession and Politics

He worked as a tractor driver, drover and photographer. In 1914 he became a dock worker in Sydney and a member of the Waterside Workers Federation of Australia and took part in public protests for the rights of the Aborigines, which were mainly directed against the Aboriginal Protection Board , which could control all Aborigines. First of all, Maynard advocated humane treatment of Aboriginal children in homes and founded the AAPA in 1925, of which he became chairman.

The AAPA campaigned for the humane treatment of Aboriginal children in homes, against the removal of Aboriginal children from their parents and against child labor of the same as domestic helpers and servants. Aboriginal families should have farmland in their traditional homeland and their children should have free access to schools. Government organizations that controlled the Aborigines should include Aboriginal members.

The Great Depression, the continued surveillance of the AAPA by the police and Aboriginal Protection Board ended the AAPA's activities in the 1930s. Maynard married Minnie Critchley on June 14, 1928 and an accident at the docks made him unable to work. He died of diabetes mellitus on September 9, 1946 at Mental Hospital, Rydalmere, and was buried in the Presbyterian Way in Rookwood Cemetery. He left a wife, two sons and two daughters.

literature

  • Heather Goodall: Invasion to Embassy. Land in Aboriginal Politics in New South Wales, 1770–1972. Sydney University Press, Sydney 1976, p. 178 f., 2008 edition ISBN 978-1-920898-58-8 ( limited preview in Google book search)
  • Suzy Baldwin (Ed.): Unsung heroes & heroines of Australia. 200 greatest stories never told. Greenhouse, Elwood, Victoria 1988, ISBN 0-86436-159-9 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Maynard, Charles Frederick
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Aboriginal activist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Hinton , New South Wales
DATE OF DEATH September 9, 1946
Place of death Rydalmere , New South Wales