Don Brady led march for Aboriginal Rights

On May Day 2007 Samuel Watson took me past the church in Leichardt Street in Magandjin where Don Brady had set up a community centre. Sam and Cath Watson were married in that church by Don Brady. Sam Watson and Dennis Walker set up Australia’s first black power movement and established the black panthers in Brisbane.

Don Brady (Kawanji) was a prominent Aboriginal leader in Queensland through the 1960s and 1970s. He was a descendant of the Gu Gu Yalanji people from the Cape York region. He was a foundation member of the Brisbane Tribal Council and actively involved in the campaign to abolish the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islander Act. Don was instrumental in the establishment of the Aboriginal Legal Aid Service in Queensland and active in the revival of dance in eastern Australia with the Yelanji dance group.

On 12 April 1970, Don Brady led a silent street march to mourn the loss of Aborigines who died in defence of their country, and to demonstrate against `the disruption of the aboriginal way of life by the white invasion’.

After the protesters arrived at the Leichhardt Street church Kath Walker (later known as Oodgeroo Noonuccal) addressed them outside, and Don Brady conducted a service inside in memory of those `thousands of our people who have died because of ignorance’. Aware that the procession had come to the attention of the police traffic and special branch, he assured the group of about sixty that this was a one-off event, and should be seen as similar to the annual Anzac Day remembrance service. He argued that the march was not intended as a demonstration of Black Power but rather as an assertion of Aboriginal rights.

In November 1971 Brady participated in a street march protesting against a bill before the Queensland parliament that extended governmental control of tribal and reserve councils. He and Denis Walker were arrested and charged with assaulting police.

Using the media to highlight inequities in housing and employment opportunities, he inspired other Aboriginal people to join the battle for social justice. He encouraged young Queensland Aborigines (eg Sam Watson) and Torres Strait Islanders to protest at the Aboriginal `tent embassy’ set up outside Parliament House, Canberra, in January 1972.

In July that year the board of the Brisbane Central Methodist Mission, which was reorganising the Christian Community Centre, asked for Brady’s resignation. Following negotiations, he was released from responsibilities for spiritual care and in September was appointed to a new position, subsidised by the Commonwealth government, as liaison officer looking after the physical, social and political welfare of Aboriginal people. The centre, now independent of the mission, continued to use the Leichhardt Street premises.

The Brisbane Chapter of the Black Panther Party of Australia was founded on 8 January 1972 by Aboriginal Australian rights activists Denis Walker (2 December 1947 – 4 December 2017) and Sam Watson (16 November 1952 – 27 November 2019). It formally disbanded in 1982. Its objectives: – Freedom, full employment, an end to robbery by the white man of the black community, restitution to the dispossessed, land and mineral rights, decent housing, education relevant to black history and culture, exemption from military service, an end to police brutality, murder and rape of black people, freedom for blacks in gaol, all blacks to be tried by people from their peer group, United Nations plebiscite of blacks in Australia, land, bread, housing, clothing, justice and peace.
Publicists – Marlene Cummins, K. Salmon, Denis Walker.