William Ferguson (politician)

William (Bill) Ferguson (born July 24, 1882 in Waddai , Darling Point , New South Wales , Australia , † January 4, 1950 in Dubbo , New South Wales) was an Aboriginal political leader , trade unionist and civil rights activist.

Early life

Ferguson was the second of seven children of sheep shearer William Ferguson and his wife Emily, who died of puerperal fever in 1895. He received his education at Warangesda Mission School, from 1896 worked as a sheep shearer, worker and postman in the Riverina area. On February 18, 1911, he married Margaret Mathieson Gowans and they lived in Santigo with Narrandera. In 1916 he and his family settled in Gulargambone and in 1933 in Dubbo.

Political life

He became politically active as a unionist for the sheep shearers in the Australian Workers' Union . He later was the local secretary of a branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP).

In 1937 he was the founder of the Aboriginal Progressive Association (APA) in Dubbo. With William Cooper and John Patten and other Aboriginal leaders, he organized the Day of Mourning in 1938 - the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet - under the political slogan Aboriginal Claim Citizen Rights! . He organized another five APA conferences from 1938. He was a member of an Aboriginal Welfare Board , which was devoted to the social needs of the Aborigines, when the government decreed that two Aborigines had to be represented on the board.

In 1949 he supported the Labor government of Ben Chifley as a representative of the Australian Aboriginal League and initiated various reforms. He had different political opinions with the ALP Minister Herbert Johnson , resigned from the Labor Party and ran as an independent candidate for Lawson , but received too few votes.

Ferguson suffered a heart attack on the occasion of his last speech, from which he died in Dubbo Base Hospital .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} adb.anu.edu.au : Jack Horner: Ferguson, William (Bill) (1882–1950) , in English, accessed October 2, 2011