Who was Charles Perkins?

Charles Perkins (1936 to 2000) was an Arrernte and Kalkadoon man who became one of the most influential Aboriginal activists of the twentieth century. He was the first Aboriginal person to graduate from an Australian university (University of Sydney, 1965), led the 1965 Freedom Rides that highlighted segregation in NSW country towns, became the first Aboriginal permanent head of a federal government department, and served as a major Indigenous leader for more than 30 years.

Perkins was born at Alice Springs in 1936 and was removed from his Aboriginal mother under the assimilation policies of the time, growing up in St Francis House children's hostel in Adelaide. He played for Adelaide soccer clubs in the 1950s, attended the Bishop Otter College in England (a teacher training college) from 1957 to 1959 (supported partly by his football career), and returned to Australia in 1959. He enrolled at the University of Sydney in 1963 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1965, the first Aboriginal university graduate.

The 1965 Freedom Rides were Perkins' most famous single contribution. From 12 to 26 February 1965, Perkins and 28 fellow Sydney University students from the Student Action for Aborigines group toured country NSW towns in a hired bus, exposing segregation at swimming pools, cinemas, RSL clubs, and hotels. The tour produced confrontations at Walgett, Moree, and Kempsey that attracted national and international media attention. The Freedom Rides drew direct inspiration from the American civil rights movement and produced lasting changes in country town race relations, although the broader process of Aboriginal civil rights took much longer.

Perkins' subsequent career included senior roles in Aboriginal policy and administration. He joined the federal public service in 1969 and rose through the ranks, becoming Deputy Secretary of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in 1979 and Secretary (the first Aboriginal head of a federal department) from 1984 to 1988. He was a foundation Commissioner of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) from 1989. He served on the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation from 1991 and chaired the Arrernte Council in Central Australia. Perkins was Australian of the Year in 1971 and an Officer of the Order of Australia. He died on 18 October 2000, with his daughter Rachel Perkins continuing his advocacy through her work as a filmmaker (including Mabo and Others v Queensland of 2012). The Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, established in 2010, and the federal electorate of Lingiari in the NT (which covers Perkins' birth country) preserve his memory.