Joe McGinness

Joseph Daniel McGinness AM (1914–2003), known as "Uncle Joe",[1] was an Aboriginal Australian activist and the first Aboriginal president of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI).

McGinness was born in 1914 in the Northern Territory to Alngindabu (also known as Lucy), a Kungarakany woman, and Stephen McGinness, an Irish prospector and operator of a tin mine. McGinness was baptised in his father's Catholic faith.[2] The McGinnesses had five children; Joe's brother Val McGinness would also be an activist as well as a musician and sportsman.[3] His sister, Margaret Edwards, was active in the Council for Aboriginal Rights in Melbourne in the 1960s.[4]

When their father died, McGinness, aged eight, and his siblings were taken into a compound for "half-caste" children in Darwin.[3]

McGinness served in Borneo in World War II, and upon his return worked on the docks in Cairns,[1] where he was active in the Waterside Workers' Federation.[5] His experience in the union movement led him to political activism with the Cairns Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advancement League and later the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement, later known as the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI).[1] He visited Adelaide, in South Australia, several times, to liaise with activists such as John Moriarty.[5]

He worked on the campaign for the 1967 referendum regarding Aboriginal affairs in Australia.[1]

McGinness was made a Member of the Order of Australia[1] in the 1990 Australia Day Honours list for service to the Aboriginal community.

Publications
  • Son of Alyandabu: My Fight for Aboriginal Rights (1991) – autobiography [1]

Works
  • McGinness, Joe (1991). Son of Alyandabu: My fight for Aboriginal Rights. University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0702223352.

References
  1. "Joe McGinness". National Museum of Australia. Retrieved 1 December 2020. The extracts on this page are from an interview with Joe McGinness and Evelyn Scott conducted by Leanne Miller and Sue Taffe on 17 October 1996
  2. "McGinness, Joseph Daniel (Joe) (1914–2003)". Indigenous Australia. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  3. Dewar, Mickey. "Alngindabu (1874–1961)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. Retrieved 21 September 2017.
  4. Taffe, Sue (11 April 2014). "Essay - The Council for Aboriginal Rights (Victoria)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  5. Moriarty, John (25 November 1996). "John Moriarty (1938)". National Museum of Australia (Interview). Interviewed by Sue Taffe. Archived from the original on 30 September 2009. Retrieved 22 March 2010.

Further reading
  • "MS 3718: Papers of Joe McGinness" (PDF). Finding aid created by M. Williams, June 1999; updated by J. Churches, March 2006; and reformatted by Ewan Maidment, November 2016. AIATSIS.CS1 maint: others (link)


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