Danger didn’t deter activists
RUTH Hennings enjoys the irony that has seen the indigenous activist – once spied on and harassed in her own town – honoured on Australia Day.
Ms Hennings, 85, and Djungan tribal leader Alfred Neal, 92, received the Order of Australia Medal for “service to the indigenous community” – especially in the 1967 referendum that officially counted indigenous Australians as citizens.
She said campaigning in Queensland in the 1960s was fraught with danger.
“We had to be very careful, we were living in a police state,” Ms Hennings said.
“One day a man ap- proached me after I finished work – he told me he knew who I was, where I was going and where my children were.”
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advancement League, of which Ms Hennings was a founding member, worked under surveillance, were wire tapped and spied upon, most likely by members of the Queensland Police Special Branch.
“The league was very strong here – so they checked up on us to see what we were doing,” she said.
Ms Hennings said the honour shared with Mr Neal would serve as a reminder of league members who had died unrecognised since the referendum.
“We shared the struggle – we would have meetings under a tree in Yarrabah,” she said.
Mr Neal is a familiar figure in the former Aboriginal mission. The former cane cutter known as “Popeye” by his 116 family members served as an advocate for indigenous rights.