Clarrie Isaacs

Clarence Frederick "Clarrie" Isaacs, also known as Yaluritja and Ishak Mohamad Haj, (9 April 1948 – 26 November 2003) was an Aboriginal Australian activist.

Life and career Isaacs attended Perth Modern School, where he studied technical drawing. He later attended the Clyde Cameron College in Albury, a union-backed training centre. After converting to Islam Isaacs undertook a pilgrimage to Mecca, earning the right to use the honorific title Haj. Isaacs, with other activists, travelled to Libya using Aboriginal passports issued by a group that later became known as the Aboriginal Provisional Government. Attempting to use the passports on their re-entry to Australia, they were initially refused entry to Australia by immigration officials.

Isaacs was a prominent figure in protests against development of the Swan Brewery site in Perth during the late 1980s.

In 1991 Isaacs was a founding member of the short-lived New Left Party, considered a successor of the Communist Party of Australia. In the 1993 Western Australian state election Isaacs stood for the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Fremantle. Isaacs stood as a candidate for Racism No! in the 1996 Western Australian state election for the Legislative Council in the South Metropolitan Region. At the 2001 Australian federal election Isaacs was a candidate for the Australian Senate, however he only received 260 votes.

He was chairman of the Derbal Yerrigan Health Service and was a Western Australian delegate to the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation. Isaacs was a justice of the peace.

Isaacs died 26 November 2003 in Dunsborough, Western Australia. He was buried on 12 December 2003 at Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth.