William Cooper (c1861 - 1941) was an Australian Aboriginal leader.
Contents |
Born in Yorta Yorta territory around the intersection of the Murray and Goulburn Rivers in Victoria, Australia, he was forced to work for a variety of pastoral employers. He attended adult literacy classes and read widely, learning of the indigenous rights movements in North America and New Zealand.
He helped establish the Australian Aborigines League and, as its secretary, circulated a petition seeking direct representation in parliament, enfranchisement and land rights. He collected 1814 signatures despite active obstruction from the national and state governments of the day. In 1935, he led the first aboriginal deputation to a Commonwealth minister and in 1938, the first deputation to the prime minister. The government of the day rejected his requests.
William Cooper continued protesting the injustice of the Australian treatment of its indigenous people right up until his death in 1941. His major success was the establishment of a National Aborigines Day, first celebrated in 1940.[1]
On 5 October 2010, the William Cooper Justice Centre was opened in Melbourne. The newly developed court complex was named in honour of Cooper's efforts as an indigenous rights campaigner.[2]
His daughter Amy Charles was the matron of the first Aboriginal hostel established in Melbourne in 1959. One of his sons, Lynch Cooper, was an athlete who won the 1928 Stawell Gift and the 1929 World Sprint.
On 6 December 1938, several weeks after Kristallnacht in Germany, Cooper led a delegation of the Australian Aboriginal League to the German Consulate in Melbourne to deliver a petition which condemned the “cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi government of Germany.”[3] The protest has been referred to as "the only private protest against the Germans following Kristallnacht."[4]
On 6 December 2008, the 70th anniversary of the protest against Kristallnacht, Cooper's grandson, Alfred “Boydie” Turner, was presented with a certificate from the Israeli Ambassador stating that 70 Australian trees were to be planted in Israel in honor of William Cooper. The ceremony, held at the State Parliament in Melbourne, was attended by several dozen members of the Yorta Yorta tribe as well as Victorian Premier John Brumby, Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin, lawmakers, diplomats and Jewish leaders.[3]
On 28 April 2009, five trees were planted at the Forest of the Martyrs near Jerusalem at a ceremony in Israel attended by Turner and about 12 members of William Cooper’s extended family as well as a number of Jewish leaders. On the same day, a ceremony at the Aborigines Advancement League in Melbourne was held to honour Cooper's "brave stance against the oppression of the Jews."[3]
In August 2010, the Yad VaShem Holocaust museum in Israel announced they would honour Cooper for his protests against the behavior towards Jews on Kristallnacht. Yad Vashem plans to endow a small garden at its entrance in Cooper's honor. Cooper's name was submitted for recognition when it was discovered that Cooper's rally was the only private protest against Germany in the wake of Kristallnacht.[5][6]
In December 2010, three commemorative events are planned: