Charles Duguid facts for kids

Charles Duguid OBE (born April 6, 1884 – died December 5, 1986) was a doctor from Scotland. He was also a social reformer, a leader in the Presbyterian Church, and a strong supporter of Aboriginal rights. He lived in Adelaide, South Australia for most of his life.

Charles Duguid wrote several books about his experiences working with Aboriginal Australians. He started the Ernabella mission station in the far north of South Australia. The Pitjantjatjara people gave him the special name Tjilpi, which means "respected old man".

He and his wife, Phyllis Duguid, were both champions for Aboriginal rights. Phyllis also worked for women's rights. Together, they did a lot to improve the lives of Aboriginal people in South Australia during the middle of the 20th century. Their work continues to help people today through things like the Duguid Indigenous Endowment Fund at The Australian National University. There is also a special lecture series held in their honor at the University of South Australia and Flinders University.

Becoming a Doctor and Moving to Australia

Charles Duguid was born in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, Scotland. His father, also named Charles Duguid, was a teacher. His mother was Jane Snodgrass Kinnier. He went to Ardrossan Academy and then the High School in Glasgow.

He studied medicine at the University of Glasgow. He earned his MA (Master of Arts) degree in 1905 and his MBChB (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) in 1909. These degrees allowed him to become a doctor and a surgeon.

After finishing his studies, Duguid worked as a doctor in Glasgow. In 1911, he became a ship's doctor on a journey to Australia and back. On this trip, he met Irene Isabella Young, who would become his first wife. They decided to get married and live in Australia.

Before moving, he worked with poor people in mining villages in Scotland. In 1912, he moved to Australia, again working as a medical officer on the ship. He and Irene married in Melbourne on October 23, 1912. They first lived in Minyip, Victoria, before moving to Adelaide in 1914.

Serving in World War I

In February 1917, during World War I, Charles Duguid joined the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps as a captain. He sailed to Egypt. He treated soldiers from the Australian Light Horse in the Middle East. Later, he worked on a hospital ship. He left the army in October 1917.

He wrote two books about his experiences during the war. In 1919, he returned to Scotland to study more and become a surgeon.

Life and Work in Adelaide After the War

After returning from Scotland, Charles Duguid bought a house in Magill, a suburb of Adelaide. He opened his own doctor's office and also worked as a surgeon at the Memorial Hospital, North Adelaide. He also became very active in groups that helped soldiers and nurses who had served in the war, like the RSL and Legacy Australia.

Charles and Irene had a son named Charles. The family moved to Britain for a short time so Charles Duguid could study more medicine. Sadly, his first wife, Irene, passed away on their journey back to Australia.

In 1927, he met Phyllis Evelyn Lade. They married in 1930 in Kent Town, Adelaide. In 1930, he also became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, which is a special honor for surgeons.

Charles and Phyllis had two more children, Andrew and Rosemary. In 1944, Phyllis became a foster parent to a six-year-old Aboriginal boy named Sydney James Cook. Sydney lived with the family until 1950. He was then sent to Roper River in the Northern Territory to grow up within an Aboriginal community.

Charles Duguid stopped working as a surgeon and general doctor in 1956. Later, he became interested in caring for older people.

Fighting for Aboriginal Rights

Charles Duguid's interest in Aboriginal rights began in 1928. This was after a terrible event called the Coniston massacre. During this event, police shot many Aboriginal people while looking for a white man's murderer.

In 1934, Duguid traveled to Darwin. On the way, he stopped in Alice Springs to perform emergency surgery. He stayed for three weeks and was shocked by how Aboriginal people were treated and their poor living conditions. He visited Hermannsburg Mission and met Albert Namatjira, a famous Aboriginal artist, and they became friends.

In 1937, Duguid helped start the Ernabella Mission in the Musgrave Ranges of South Australia. He gave talks in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom about the difficult lives of Aboriginal Australians.

Duguid was involved in many groups that worked to improve Aboriginal rights. These included the Victorian Council for Aboriginal Rights and the Association for the Protection of Native Races. He also worked with the Anti-Slavery Society. He and his wife Phyllis were key leaders in improving the lives of Aboriginal people in South Australia during the mid-1900s.

Aborigines Protection Board

In 1940, Charles Duguid was chosen to be a founding member of the South Australian Government's Aboriginal Protection Board. This board was created to "control and promote the welfare" of Aboriginal people. It replaced earlier groups and became the legal guardian of all Aboriginal children.

As part of his job, Duguid visited Aboriginal reserves across the state. He saw how Aboriginal people were treated unfairly on farms and in schools. In 1946, he and Phyllis, along with their children and fostered son Sydney, visited Ernabella.

Soon after, they learned about a British plan to test guided weapons in the Central Australian Desert at Woomera. Duguid was worried about how this would affect the Aboriginal people living there. He spoke out against the plan at public meetings in Adelaide and Melbourne. He worked hard to tell people about the harm this program would cause to those living traditionally nearby.

Duguid resigned from the Aborigines Protection Board when they approved the testing plan. His resignation made news around the world. Because of the protests, a patrol officer was appointed at Woomera to help protect the local people.

The Aborigines Protection Board believed in "assimilation," meaning Aboriginal people should adopt white Australian ways of life. But by the 1950s, ideas about human rights changed. In 1963, a new group called the Aboriginal Affairs Advisory Board was created. This new board focused on helping Aboriginal people gain full citizenship rights.

Aborigines' Protection League

In 1925, a man named Joseph Charles Genders suggested creating a "Model Aboriginal State" in the Northern Territory. He formed the Aborigines' Protection League to support this idea. He was upset by the poor conditions he saw Aboriginal people living in at Point McLeay.

His idea didn't get much support. In 1935, Charles Duguid was elected president of the League and stayed in that role until 1946.

Under Duguid's leadership, the League focused on the rights of Aboriginal people to govern themselves and keep their culture. This was when he established the Ernabella mission. The mission respected Indigenous culture, and the League supported it. However, by 1939, many of the League's original members were gone. World War II then became a bigger focus for people.

Aborigines' Advancement League of South Australia

In 1938, a group of non-Aboriginal women in Adelaide, led by Phyllis Duguid, formed a new group. It was called the League for the Protection and Advancement of Aboriginal and Half-caste Women. When the Aborigines' Protection League closed in 1946, it gave its remaining money to this women's group. The group then allowed men to join and became known as the Aborigines' Advancement League of South Australia (AALSA) in 1950.

Charles Duguid was president of AALSA from 1951 to 1961. Under his leadership, AALSA became a place where Aboriginal voices could be heard. People like Lowitja O'Donoghue joined the League to fight for Aboriginal women to become teachers and nurses, and for men to get apprenticeships.

For example, O'Donoghue and others were not allowed to train as nurses at the Royal Adelaide Hospital because they were Aboriginal. Duguid was very upset by this. He organized a public meeting in the Adelaide Town Hall on August 31, 1953. Five Aboriginal people spoke about their experiences with unfair treatment. This meeting led to many new members for the League and raised a lot of money for a hostel for Aboriginal people in the city.

AALSA, led by the Duguids, also helped change a law called the SA Police Offences Act 1953. This law made it illegal for a non-Aboriginal person to "habitually consort" (spend time with) an Aboriginal person. This unfair rule was removed in 1958.

After the 1967 referendum (a vote that gave the Australian government more power to make laws for Aboriginal people), Aboriginal people started taking more control of their own affairs. The AALSA continued until 2008. It focused on land rights, keeping Aboriginal languages alive, and getting respect for Aboriginal culture.

Wiltja Hostel

One important result of the Town Hall meeting was the creation of the Wiltja Hostel in November 1956. It was located in Millswood, Adelaide. Wiltja is a Pitjantjatjara word for a type of open shelter.

This hostel provided a place for Aboriginal girls attending high school in Adelaide to live. It also sometimes housed them for a year after school. It operated until 1978. After that, it became a boarding house for adult Aboriginal visitors to the city.

Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement

On February 14, 1958, a three-day meeting took place in Adelaide. It was hosted by AALSA and brought together groups working for Aboriginal rights from across Australia. This meeting led to the creation of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement.

This was the first national group to represent Aboriginal interests. Its goal was to help "the Aboriginal people of Australia to become self-reliant, self-supporting members of the community." Charles Duguid, as one of the oldest members and president of AALSA, was chosen as the first president.

This was a big step because it brought many different groups together. However, AALSA decided to leave the federal organization around 1959, fully separating in 1966. They felt the federal group focused too much on the state of Victoria. So, much of the work in South Australia continued to be led by the Duguids and local groups.

Aborigines Progress Association

The Aborigines Progress Association (APA) was a new group formed in 1964. It broke away from AALSA. Laurie Bryan, a non-Aboriginal man, helped start it because he wanted an "all-Aboriginal" group. Malcolm Cooper was a founding member and became president. John Kundereri Moriarty became vice-president. Other founding members included Winnie Branson and Vince Copley.

Most of the Aboriginal members of AALSA left to join the APA. Lowitja O'Donoghue said that she and others joined because they felt the need for an all-Aboriginal group, but they still had good feelings towards the League and Duguid.

The APA helped create the Aboriginal Education Foundation. This foundation supported Aboriginal students through secondary school and tertiary education (university). These students, like Lois O'Donoghue, also became involved in political activism.

The group stopped working in the 1970s. Its members then helped to establish the Aboriginal Cultural Centre.

Council of Aboriginal Women of South Australia

In 1966, a group of Aboriginal women, led by Gladys Elphick, formed the Council of Aboriginal Women of South Australia (CAWSA). They felt the Aborigines Progress Association was being run mostly by white people. The Council worked closely with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Later, the Aboriginal Cultural Centre joined with CAWSA.

Other Important Work

Charles Duguid was involved in many other activities:

• He helped start the Australian branch of the English-Speaking Union.
• In 1935, he became the first non-clergyman (lay) Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of South Australia.
• In December 1935, the Duguids welcomed 34 children from the Colebrook Home into their own home for six weeks.
• From 1944 to 1960, he was president of the District and Bush Nursing Society of South Australia. This group provided nursing care in homes and remote areas.
• In 1948, he helped care for sick people during a measles outbreak at Ernabella.
• He was also involved with groups like the United Nations Association of Australia, the Australian Inland Mission, and the Australian Aerial Medical Service.

Later Life, Honors, and Lasting Impact

In April 1984, on his 100th birthday, the Ernabella choir traveled to Adelaide to sing for Charles Duguid.

He passed away on December 5, 1986, in Kent Town, Adelaide, at the age of 102. He was buried at Ernabella, as he had wished. A special plaque honoring Duguid was placed in the Jubilee 150 Walkway in North Terrace, Adelaide.

Awards and Recognition

• In 1971, Duguid received the OBE for his important work with Aboriginal people.
• In 1972, he received a letter from the people at Ernabella. They asked that after his death, he be buried at the mission. They wrote that they would "always remember that he was one of us and that he faithfully helped us." He considered this his greatest honor. The Pitjantjatjara people called him Tjilpi, meaning "respected old man."
• In 1974, he won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for his autobiography, Doctor and the Aborigines. This American award recognizes books that help people understand racism.

His Lasting Impact

• Charles Duguid's ideas influenced two state premiers, Don Dunstan and David Tonkin. This eventually led to the return of ancient tribal lands to the Pitjantjatjara people. This created the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY lands) in 1981.
• The Duguid Indigenous Endowment Fund was created at the Australian National University. This fund helps Indigenous students.
• The Biennial Duguid Memorial Lecture is held every two years at the University of South Australia and Flinders University. These lectures honor both Charles and Phyllis Duguid.