Evelyn Scott (1935-2017) was one of the most celebrated voices in the battle for indigenous rights in Australia. She was a life-long political activist and a leading force in the historic 1967 referendum for aboriginal rights.
Evelyn Scott (1935-2017) was one of the most celebrated voices in the battle for indigenous rights in Australia. She was a life-long political activist and a leading force in the historic 1967 referendum for aboriginal rights.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan. This is Womanica.
Today, we’re talking about one of the most celebrated voices in the battle for indigenous rights in Australia. She was a life-long political activist and a leading force in the historic 1967 referendum for aboriginal rights. Please welcome Evelyn Scott.
Evelyn was born Evelyn Ruth Backo in 1935, in Ingham, Queensland. Her father was the son of an enslaved person from Vanuatu. Evelyn’s desire to fight injustice may have stemmed from him. While we don’t know too much about Evelyn’s childhood, many authors and journalists have suggested she took inspiration from her father’s motto: “If you don’t think something is right, then challenge it.”
When Evelyn was in her mid-twenties, she moved to Townsville, a city in northeastern Queensland. It was there in the 1960s that she was called to action. She joined the Townsville Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advancement League where she organized to fight widespread injustice against aboriginal people. At the time, the Queensland government was enforcing many discriminatory practices in housing, employment, and education under the Aborigines Protection Act.
Under this law, aboriginal rights were almost entirely controlled by Aboriginal Protectors. Protectors were classified as European civil servants, police, and missionaries. These so-called Protectors had full legal right to remove Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from their homes and relocate them to reserves. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s civil, workplace and political rights were diminished if not totally non-existent.
In 1967, Evelyn was a major leader in a campaign to turn back those protection laws. She campaigned for a yes vote on the 1967 referendum, which called for changing two sections of Australia’s constitution. As it then stood, the Australian Constitution stated that the federal Parliament could not make laws for Aboriginal people. Instead, that responsibility fell to individual states, which enabled the creation of sporadic, unjust laws like the Protection Act in Queensland. The Constitution also omitted Aboriginal people from the federal census.
The 1967 referendum asked Australians if they supported including Aboriginal people from every state in these constitutional provisions. The result was historic: more than 90% of voters voted yes, making it the most successful referendum in Australian history.
Afterwards, Evelyn joined the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders as its vice president. A few years later, in 1973, she helped the council become indigenous-led and became its general secretary. She would say in an interview years later, “We have to determine our own agenda if we’re going to address the issue right.”
Evelyn was dedicated to the importance of women’s voices in the fight for indigenous rights. Throughout the 1970s, she was active in the Cairns and District Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation for Women, as well as the National Aboriginal and Islander Women’s Council. She also campaigned for the protection of the Great Barrier Reef, and believed in involving more indigenous voices in land and sea conservation.
Evelyn was awarded the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal for her activism in 1977. She also received two honorary doctorates, and was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2003.
Evelyn continued her advocacy work into her 60s. From 1997 to 2000, she acted as the chair of the National Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. She worked in opposition to Prime Minister, John Howard, who was resolute on cutting reconciliation funding. Evelyn’s efforts culminated in the Corroboree 2000 Bridge Walk, where more than a quarter of a million people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of an official government apology.
In 2015, Evelyn moved to a care facility in Cairns. She died on September 21, 2017, at the age of 81. Her contributions to indigenous rights in Australia were widely lauded at the time of her death. Evelyn became the first Aboriginal woman to be honored by the Queensland government with a state funeral.
All month, we’re honoring the legacies of Indigenous women.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!