William Ferguson (Australian Aboriginal leader)
William Ferguson (24 July 1882 – 4 January 1950) was an
He was born at
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 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 (APA) at Dubbo in 1937 and was a witness before the NSW Legislative Assembly's select committee on the administration of the Aborigines Protection Act (which failed to initiate any reform).
With
In 1949 he went to lobby the national
He collapsed after a final speech before the election, and died of hypertensive heart failure on 4 January 1950 in Dubbo Base Hospital.
References
- ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 11 May 2010.