Remembering Charlie

It is therefore fitting that the subject of honouring our great leaders of the past, whose very actions have shaped our future, is recalled for further praise in the weeks succeeding the 1967 Referendum 40th Year celebrations.

And as far as I’m concerned there is no greater leader of the post 1967 Referendum year than Charles Nelson Perkins - more affectionately known as Charlie.

Charlie (1936-2000) was born at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station Aboriginal Reserve in the Northern Territory in 1936. His parents were Arrente and Kalkadoon people. Removed from the Reserve at the age of 10 he was sent to a home for boys in Adelaide where he completed his schooling. He qualified as a fitter and turner in 1952. A talented soccer player, Charlie played as a professional with English club, Everton, and on his return to Australia with the Adelaide Croatian and then the Sydney club, Pan Hellenic.

While studying at Sydney University, Charlie became increasingly active in Indigenous rights issues. In 1965 he gained notoriety by leading a group of fellow students on the Freedom Ride - a tour of rural New South Wales to highlight the discrimination that existed for Indigenous people in many country towns.

Charlie joined the Commonwealth Office of Aboriginal Affairs in 1969. His career grew with the Commonwealth’s increasing role in Indigenous issues after Gough Whitlam gained office as prime minister in 1972 and the government commenced a major funding program of new policy initiatives for Indigenous Australians.

Charlie advised the government on these new policy initiatives and on the structure and implementation of the first nationally elected Indigenous body in 1973, the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee (NACC), and thereafter had an influence in various capacities, as Chairman or CEO, of all major federally funded Indigenous bodies: Aboriginal Development Commission (ADC), Aboriginal Hostels Limited (AHL) and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA).

Charlie was a talented, visionary and compassionate man who was loved by all and had a remarkable memory for names. He knew just about every major family group throughout the country and was on first name terms with chairpersons of every Indigenous legal service, medical service, housing company and native title committee.

Sure, there were those who had a great dislike for Charlie but they were few and far between and who parted ways from him for various political reasons: maybe he didn’t give them a job, fund their project or recommend them for a committee.

In his later years Charlie returned to live in Alice Springs. He was elected as a Commissioner to the Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander Commission (ATSIC) in 1993 and served as its Deputy Chairman in 1994-95. He also served as a mentor to several of Australia’s leading Aboriginal athletes.

To show appreciation for the immense contribution Charlie made in advancing the cause of Indigenous Australians I propose the establishment of a “Remembering Charlie Committee” to take charge of a major fund raising program to erect a life size bronze statue of him in a prominent public space in Sydney: a city where Charlie started and finished his political career and where all his immediate family reside today.

I’ve shared this concept with Charlie’s wife Eileen and she informed me that it would please her and her children and grandchildren to have a statue of Charlie in the beautiful harbour city in recognition for his lifelong service to his people.

It is my intention to provide the names of prominent Indigenous, civic, sporting and business leaders who will comprise the “Remembering Charlie Committee” after further discussion with Eileen in the following weeks and to publish the committee in the 403rd edition of the Koori Mail.