Phyllis Duguid partners her husband Charles in devotion to Aboriginal equality causes from 1930s South Australia
South Australia's Phyllis and Charles Guguid devoted decades to the cause of Aboriginal equality and opportunity.
Phyllis Duguid and her Scottish-born surgeon husband Charles Duguid became 20th Century South Australian champions of Aboriginal causes on many fronts. After Charles Duigud's visit to the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara lands in 1935, Phyllis supported his proposal for a mission based, in contrast to practices of that time, on respect for culture and language.
With the support of the Presbyterian Church and the South Australian government, Ernabella Mission opened in 1937.Together with M. E. Eaton, the president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Phyllis Duguid visited Central Australia in 1938 to investigate abuse of Aboriginal women. From that, they formed the League for the Protection and Advancement of Aboriginal and Half-Caste Women, with Phyllis as founding president. It later became the Aborigines Advancement League of South Australia in 1950.
Charles Duguid gained notoriety for his uncompromising stand against the Woomera rocket range being set up in 1946–47 with a flight path over Aboriginal reserves.
In 1944, Phyllis Duguid fostered a six-year-old Aboriginal boy, Sydney James Cook, who had been enrolled at King’s College, Adelaide. He lived with the family until 1950 when he was sent to Roper River in the Northern Territory where the Duguids believing he would benefit by growing up in an Aboriginal community.
In 1953 the Duguids organised an Adelaide Town Hall meeting where five Aboriginal people (George Rankin, Mona Paul, Peter Tilmouth, Ivy Mitchell, and Geoff Barnes) spoke about discrimination. The Duguids encouraged them to train and seek work as nurses and teachers. Some, including Lowjita O’Donoghue, became leaders of emerging Aboriginal movements .From this meeting, Wiltja Hostel was started 1956 in Adelaide suburb Millswood for Aboriginal girls from country regions attending secondary schools in Adelaide. Phyllis Duguid maintained a close interest in the hostel.
Phyllis Duguid came to her marriage to Scottish surgeon Charles Duguid, in the Methodist church at Kent Town in 1930, as the daughter of a Methodist minister and vigorous temperance campaigner. She attended Miss Henderson’s school for girls, and Methodist Ladies College, before studying classics and English at Adelaide University. She was briefly as a tutor in English at the university and became senior English teacher at the Presbyterian Girls’ College.
Two things set off her interest in Aboriginal issues. A long-term patient of Charles Duguid told stories of conditions in Central and Northern Australia, followed by the widely reported case of an Aboriginal man, Dhakiyarr (Tuckia), who the high court (1934) found that he had been wrongfully convicted and sentence to death for murdering a policeman. Charles Duguid has been described as one of Australia’s most successful, unique and best known campaigners for Aboriginal causes.
Phyllis Duguid epitomised the strength of gentleness and helped promote his passion for the cause of Aboriginal justice, as well as editing his writings. Describing herself as a Christian socialist, Phyllis Duguid was also active in working to better conditions for the underclass of women and girls. The Duguid Indigenous Endowment and its travelling scholarship, founded in memory of Phyllis and Charles, were administered by the Australian National University. The University of South Australia and Flinders University share dthe biennial Duguid memorial lecture.
Both Phyllis and Charles Duguid were buried at the Ernabella mission.
