Charles Perkins As A Sociological Analysis

Charles Perkins was an Australian Aboriginal activist that contributed to the 1967 referendum “yes vote”. Charles was a key member of the freedom ride which was a bus tour that travelled around New south wales with activists that protested discrimination towards Aboriginal people in small towns in New South Wales. The freedom rides were also an important factor leading up towards the 1967 referendum that greatly impacted Australian society today. Firstly, Charles Perkins and the Freedom rides gained much attention from the media which with the awareness of the racism Aboriginal people suffered from, to white city people. Secondly the Freedom rides encouraged Aboriginal people to revolt against the mistreatment, gain the enthusiasm to no longer tolerate being referred as “second class” and to vote “yes” in the referendum. Thirdly the freedom rides led many young people in becoming active in the “yes campaign”.

In, 1967 Charles Perkins dedicated his life to Aboriginal liberation rights in Australia, because he believed everyone should be able to equality indigenous or not. In his life Perkins has contributed his time and effort to make something transpire that should have already transpired and because of this accomplished a lot, and became a consequential figure in native Indigenous rights history.

The rape and murder of Pamela George, an Indigenous sex worker from Canada, remains as one of the most prescient examines of colonial violence and spatialized justice. This essay examines the George case in light of broader ideas about race, gender, and sexuality. In particular, it questions the role of the Canadian legal process in light of white privilege, and the lack of humanity and dignity gave to women of Indigenous descent. I will begin by outlying how George autonomy was taken away through stigmas attached to sex work and her Indigeneity. Next, I will contextualize this within an ongoing and historical process of colonization and existing literature relating to structural violence against Indigenous women.

Neville Bonner and Mandawuy Yunupingu are known for being resilient Indigenous Australian leaders, paving the way for the improvement in quality of life for generations of Indigenous Australians, and becoming ‘firsts’ in their respective fields (National Portrait Gallery, 2016). Bonner was the first Indigenous member of Australian Federal Parliament, representing Queensland as the Liberal Party Senator in the 1972, 1974, 1975, and 1980 elections (National Film and Sound Archive, 2015). While Yunupingu was the first Indigenous Australian to become a school principal, and shed light internationally on the mistreatment of Australian Indigenous people through his band ‘Yothu Yindi,’ (National Library of Australia, n.d.). Both men were strong Indigenous rights activists, and inspired a nation to bridge the gaps between Indigenous Australians, and contemporary Australian society.

Charles Perkins is a half Aboriginal man who was born in Alice Spring. Father Smith took him and other Aboriginal boys to Adelaide and brought them up in boys’ institution (Source1). When the Church decided to close it because of financial difficulty, Charles Perkins felt dejected as he stated “Which was a real tragedy”(source1) since the boys’ institution was producing some good results from the kids. However, he still faced the toughness in that time because technically he is in the term Stolen Generation and he had his own responsibility to look after himself (Source1). When he grew up, he continued his study in Sydney University (Source 3). Charles Perkins played a key role in Aboriginal right issues through very successful campaign in

Charles Perkins was the elected leader of the Student Action For Aborigines. On the 12th of February 1965, Charles Perkins and Jim Spigelman led about 28 members of Student Action For Aborigines on a 14-day 3200-kilometre bus tour of new south wales. Their focus was the desegregation of leisure facilities. They publicised discrimination used non-violent direct action.

In comparison to the white people’s rights, the Aboriginals had next to little or no rights. Charles had the desire to make a change in the world and therefore created the Freedom Ride in 1965. The Freedom Ride consisted of thirty white students from university who planned to take a bus and travel New South Wales. During this journey, they intended to investigate the living conditions of Indigenous people in all aspects of life: health, education and housing. They wanted to study the different races and their interactions with each other in Australia, and the level of racism and protest against it. They travelled to the town of Dubbo, where Aboriginal people were locked up for singing in their language. In theatres in Walgett, the black people were seated in the front, while the white people had the privilege to enjoy from the top seats. If the black people were to sit in the whites’ allocated spots, they were tossed down and the police were called. In Moree, Indigenous people were restricted from using local pools and in Bowraville, segregation was the norm. While the Freedom Riders travelled to these places, they were mistreated. In Moree for example, the female students of the Freedom Ride were spat on and Charles Perkins himself had an egg thrown at him, and was punched. Despite such difficulties, they

Charles Perkins played an extremely significant role in the struggle for rights and freedom of Aboriginal people. He was born in 1936 and was an Australian Aboriginal activist, the first Australian Aboriginal to graduate from university, and he also led the freedom ride in 1965. He was a manager of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs, an organisation that took a key role in getting a 'Yes' vote for the 1967 referendum regarding Aboriginal rights. His controversial actions allowed him to successfully reduce discrimination against aboriginals. He has also exposed the discrimination and segregation that existed in Australian society, he then tried to educate the Australian society to reduce racial discrimination and get greater equality or indigenous Australians. Perkins was later elected as the deputy chairperson of the Australia and Torres straight islander commission.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, I am here to discuss the effects that Neville Bonner had on the land rights and freedoms of aboriginal Australians. Australia has a history of discrimination. This is proven by the amount of effort it took to change the rights of indigenous Australians. One of the most effective aboriginal Australian’s was Neville Bonner, who I will speak about today. Neville Bonner had a significant impact on the rights and freedoms of indigenous peoples due to his involvement in parliament and his determination to live freely as an aboriginal. We will discuss throughout the speech Neville’s background and childhood, the changes he made to the rights of aboriginal peoples and who they impacted, as well as why he decided to make a difference to the lives of aborigines.

Racism develops quite a lot during the novel. An example of racism that was occurred in the novel was showed when Darcy had told Gary during the awards night that he should be cautious, because majority of the Indigenous women had the "clap". Back then, the word "clap", meant a viral disease that a lot of Indigenous people had.

Once the group had finished visiting these towns and had ended their journey Charles Perkins reported what had happened to a crowd of approximately two hundred at the 1965 Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islands conference in Canberra. The responses after this conference were mainly positive and because of Charles Perkins’ the NSW Aboriginal Welfare Board had announced they would spend sixty-five thousand pounds on more housing in Moree for the Aboriginals. The Australian Freedom Riders had caused many debates all across Australia which had then caused the 1967 Referendum which got rid of a law in the constitution that had stated ‘laws can be made for the people of any race, other than the Aboriginal race in any state, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws’. The law was changed and removed the section ‘other than the Aboriginal race’ this was a positive change as it meant laws could be made in favour of the Aboriginals which could help protect them. Another positive aspect that came out of the

Frances Perkins was one of the most influential women of the twentieth century, yet she is not really a house hold name. Perkins was named Secretary of Labor by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. As the first Female Cabinet secretary, she spearheaded the fight to improve the lives of American working people. Perkin's ideas became the cornerstone of the most important social welfare legislation in the nation’s history, including unemployment compensation, child labor laws, the forty hour work week, and Social Security. Born Fannie Coralie Perkins in Boston, Massachusetts

-White settlement affected the Indigenous people in a number of ways”{They} made them (the Aboriginals) outcasts on their own land*” by calling it terra nullius under the English Law, despite knowing the existence of the Aboriginals. Terra nullius is a latin term that means “land that belongs to no one.”They believed it belonged to no one because the Aboriginals didn’t use the land in the same way as the British. The Aboriginals believed that Mother Nature would provide them with what they needed, so they didn’t need to hunt and mark the land. The British completely ignored the deep spiritual connections the Aboriginals had with the land. They cut down trees, put up fences and built towns. They believed they had to own the land. But the Aboriginals were outraged when saw the settlers building farms where they had originally been hunting and gathering at, this was because there wasn’t enough food for them. They killed many white settlers in revenge and a clash of cultures began. Pemulwuy was an Aboriginal warrior that lead raids against the British. He also speared John McIntyre, Governor Phillip's gamekeeper, in December 1790. When the Indigenous people resisted the British, it lead to many conflicts which eventually left a irreversible damage to the lives of Indigenous people.

During the course of an individual 's life a person will experience what C. Wright Mills refers to as "the trap". The trap alludes to a person that can only see and understand their own small scope of life. Their frame of reference is limited to their day to day life and personal experiences that are directly related to them, they cannot see the bigger picture. They do not yet know that the sociological imagination can set them free from this trap and as C. Wright Mills said, "In many ways it is a terrible lesson; in many ways a magnificent one.".

In Peter Berger's "Invitation to Sociology", the sociological perspective was introduced. Berger asserts that it is important to examine new or emotionally or morally challenging situations from a sociological perspective in order to gain a clearer understanding of their true meanings. This perspective requires a person to observe a situation through objective eyes. It is important to "look beyond" the stereotypical establishments of a society and focus on their true, hidden meanings. Consideration of all the hidden meanings of social customs, norms, deviations and taboos, allow one to establish an objective image about the truth behind it. This method can also be applied to understanding people. This questioning, Berger says, is the