Blak History Month: Jack Patten (1905–1957)

Jack Patten was an Aboriginal Australian activist, journalist, and soldier who became one of the leading figures in the early movement for Indigenous civil rights in Australia. A Yorta Yorta man, he helped bring national attention to discrimination against Aboriginal people and played a central role in several landmark campaigns that shaped later advocacy for equality.

Patten was the first president of the Aborigines Progressive Association (APA), established in 1937 to campaign against the policies of the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board. He toured Aboriginal communities, documented poor living conditions, spoke publicly in Sydney's Domain, and advocated for equal citizenship, education, and legal rights for Aboriginal Australians. He also edited Australian Abo Call*, one of Australia's earliest Aboriginal-run newspapers.

One of Patten's most significant achievements was co-organizing the 'Day of Mourning' on 26 January 1938 alongside leaders including William Ferguson and William Cooper. Held during Australia's sesquicentenary celebrations, it was the first national Aboriginal civil rights protest and called for full citizenship and equal rights. Patten also helped draft Aborigines Claim Citizen Rights, a manifesto presented to Prime Minister Joseph Lyons outlining proposals for national reform.

In 1939, Patten became a key figure in the Cummeragunja walk-off, encouraging residents to leave the mission in protest over harsh conditions and poor management. The walk-off became one of the earliest large-scale Aboriginal acts of collective resistance in Australia, although Patten was arrested for his involvement. Later that year, after campaigning against restrictions on Aboriginal enlistment, he joined the Australian Army and served in the Middle East during the Second World War until a shrapnel injury led to his discharge in 1942.

Patten continued advocating for Aboriginal communities after the war, working with organizations in Melbourne and later helping establish the Australian Aboriginal Elders Council of Victoria. He died in a car accident in Melbourne in 1957 at the age of 52. Today he is widely recognized as one of the architects of the modern Aboriginal rights movement in Australia, remembered for linking grassroots organizing, journalism, and political advocacy in the pursuit of justice and equality.

*While the term "Abo" is considered derogatory today, it did not have the same disparaging connotation when the publication was created in 1938.