Aborigines Progressive Association

The Aborigines Progressive Association, (originally formed in 1924) was established in 1937 by William Ferguson, Pearl Gibbs and Jack Patten in Dubbo, New South Wales. Ferguson and Gibbs led a group in the western part of the state, while Patten assemble an alliance of activists in the north-east. Both wings of the APA were involved in political organisation, rallies, and protests in both Aboriginal communities and reserves and major NSW centres such as Sydney.

In 1938 the APA organised the Day of Mourning on Australia Day of that year to protest the lack of basic human rights available to Aborigines. It was held at the Australian Hall building, Sydney.

Famous quotes containing the words aborigines, progressive and/or association:

    These are not the artificial forests of an English king,—a royal preserve merely. Here prevail no forest laws but those of nature. The aborigines have never been dispossessed, nor nature disforested.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    I don’t have any doubts that there will be a place for progressive white people in this country in the future. I think the paranoia common among white people is very unfounded. I have always organized my life so that I could focus on political work. That’s all I want to do, and that’s all that makes me happy.
    Hettie V., South African white anti-apartheid activist and feminist. As quoted in Lives of Courage, ch. 21, by Diana E. H. Russell (1989)

    It is not merely the likeness which is precious ... but the association and the sense of nearness involved in the thing ... the fact of the very shadow of the person lying there fixed forever! It is the very sanctification of portraits I think—and it is not at all monstrous in me to say ... that I would rather have such a memorial of one I dearly loved, than the noblest Artist’s work ever produced.
    Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)