Phyllis Evelyn Duguid

Phyllis Evelyn Duguid (16 October 1904 – 9 March 1993), née Lade, was an Australian teacher and Aboriginal rights and women's activist, who was highly regarded for her long-term commitment to those she saw as members of an underclass in society. She was married to, and often worked alongside, Charles Duguid, medical practitioner and Aboriginal rights campaigner, the couple leading much of the work on improving the lives of Aboriginal people in South Australia in the mid-twentieth century. She founded the League for the Protection and Advancement of Aboriginal and Half-Caste Women, which later became the Aborigines' Advancement League of South Australia (AALSA).

The Duguids' legacies include the Duguid Indigenous Endowment Fund at The Australian National University and the Biennial Duguid Memorial Lecture series (held in alternate years at the University of South Australia and Flinders University).

Early life and education

The third child of six children, Duguid was born on 16 October 1904 at Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia. Her father, Frank Lade (1868-1948), was a Methodist clergyman, who travelled extensively to give lectures to members of the temperance movement. The family moved to Adelaide in 1911, and Phyllis attended Miss Henderson's school for girls, and then Methodist Ladies' College (later Annesley College). at the University of Adelaide (BA Hons, 1925), saying that "she wouldn’t allow any of us just to stay home and be what was called a homegirl, until we had done something else".

Duguid was inspired to campaign for Indigenous issues after hearing from one of Charles' patients about the poor conditions in central and northern Australia, and the widely reported Tuckiar v The King case in 1934, in which an unfair conviction against a Yolngu man (Dhakiyarr) in the Northern Territory seven months earlier was overturned by the High Court of Australia. She heard about her husband's trip to the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara lands in 1935, and supported his proposal to create the Ernabella Mission.

Within its first year of operation, the League had 205 members, with a core group of 20 women who formed the executive running the organisation. Its first main goal was "to establish and maintain a welfare and recreational centre in Alice Springs for Aboriginal and half-caste women and girls, in order that the need for the provision of such centres be demonstrated". Defending this work in the face of criticism from Rev. J.H. Sexton of the Aborigines' Friends' Association, Duguid said that the work her group proposed was essentially women's work, for women and by women. The Alice Springs centre was envisaged as a social centre, where both Aboriginal and mixed-descent girls and women could improve themselves and raise their status, and also obtain protection from exploitation or abuse of any kind if necessary. There were also plans for a residential hostel. The scheme showed the League's commitment to assimilation, exceeding anything proposed by the federal government at that time. Although the federal government viewed the idea positively, plans for the social and recreational centre were interrupted by priorities demanded by the advent of World War II.

Other activities Duguid described herself as a "Christian socialist".

In 1944 she fostered a six-year-old Aboriginal boy, Sydney James Cook, who had been enrolled at King's College, Adelaide, and who lived with the family until 1950, when the Duguids decided that he would be better off growing up in an Aboriginal community, and sent him to Roper River in the Northern Territory.

Duguid was active in the League of Women Voters of South Australia, becoming its final president in 1979 as well as holding other offices prior to this. She was chairperson of the first meeting of the Status of Women Council in South Australia. left by Scotswoman Henrietta Smith in 1893, specifically for the benefit of Aboriginal people, which led to the foundation of the Smith of Dunesk Mission in Beltana. (Husband Charles wrote a letter to The Advertiser in 1948 which gives some details of the bequest, including that attempts had been made to divert the money from Aboriginals, and that three-quarters of the proceeds were to be used for the work of the Presbyterian Church among the aborigines at Ernabella. in which she advocated "homes founded on the true partnership of men and women who are free, equal and interdependent",

She gave a talk arranged by the Marriage Guidance Council in 1953, in which she said it was important for young people to "realise the hardships involved in the unequal economic status of a husband and wife" and to plan accordingly.

Later life, honours, legacy

Duguid was known as Kungka (woman) by Pitjantjatjara people.

She died on 9 March 1993 at Linden Park and her ashes were buried next to those of her husband at the Ernabella Mission Cemetery.

In 1994, the Aborigines Advancement League made a large donation to the University of South Australia and Flinders University, to provide study grants for Aboriginal graduates and to conduct a memorial lecture every two years. The Biennial Duguid Memorial Lecture (held alternate years at the University of South Australia and Flinders University) is held in honour of Charles and Phyllis Duguid.