Margaret Tucker

Margaret (Lilardia) Elizabeth Tucker (born March 18, 1904 , † August 23, 1996 ) was an Aboriginal political activist . Lilardia was her Aboriginal name. The first autobiography by an Aboriginal woman was published about her. She was also awarded a high medal.

Margaret Tucker was born in the Warrangesda Mission and spent her childhood in the Cummeragunja Mission and Moonaculla Mission in New South Wales . Her father was William Clements, a Wiradjuri , and her mother Teresa a Yulupna . At the age of 13, Tucker was taken from her mother and taken to a home in Cootamundra.

In the 1930s she took part in the campaigns for Aboriginal rights with William Cooper , Bill and Eric Onus and Doug Nicholls. In 1932 she co-founded the Australian Aboriginal League and on January 26, 1938 she was involved in the preparation and implementation of the Day of Mourning , which in 1940 also became a national holiday. In 1939 she organized concerts for the Cumeroogunga strikers and was therefore called the black Communist .

Tucker founded the United Council of Aboriginal and Islander Women in the 1960s. She was also the first Aboriginal woman to be appointed to the Aboriginal Welfare Board in Victoria in 1965 and to the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs in 1968.

On January 1, 1968, she received a high order, the Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil), for her services to the Aboriginal community.

Margaret Tucker's biography If Everyone Cared , published in 1977, was the first autobiography to be published about an Aboriginal woman.

Web links

• Margaret Tucker at www.womenaustralia.info
• Margaret Tucker on indigenousrights.net.au

Individual proof

1. ↑ The Black Communist: The Contested Memory of Margaret Tucker ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.