Rita Huggins

Rita Cynthia Huggins Holt (10 August 1921 – 27 August 1996) was an Aboriginal Australian activist. She worked with One People of Australia League during the 1960s, and is the subject of a biography, Auntie Rita, co-written with her daughter Jackie Huggins and published in 1994.

Early life and education Rita Cynthia Holt (later Huggins) was born on 10 August 1921, at Carnarvon Gorge, Queensland, the daughter of Albert and Rose Holt. They were of the Bidjara-Pitjara lands which encompasses part of the Carnarvon National Park. At an early age she and her siblings were separated from their extended family due to the official government policy at the time. Rita, her parents and some of her siblings went to live at Cherbourg Aboriginal Reserve, in Barambah if they had light skin colour, while others were sent to Wooribinda if they had dark skin colour.

She lived with her parents and attended school at Cherbourg from age 8-13, and then was removed to the girls dormitory.

1930s-1940s: domestic service In 1934, Huggins was sent into domestic service by the government, working on a property outside Charleville.

In 1947, Rita fell pregnant with her second child, Gloria and after the government granted her an exemption to move, she relocated to Mackay where she lived with friends Lear Barber and Ted Ram Chandra and worked for a doctor's family. when she was 18 and working in Brisbane. They married in 1951 and lived in Ayr, where he worked in the post office. They had three children together - Ngaire, Jackie and John. Jack died suddenly in 1958. Huggins moved her family to Brisbane where she took up employment again in addition to some support from Jack Huggins' superannuation fund and war pension.

She was involved with the lobbying that OPAL took for the 1967 referendum. Much of the administration of OPAL was run from Huggins home, and she became director of OPAL for over 20 years, as they sought funding to establish the OPAL Joyce Wilding home, the Murri School at Acacia Ridge and the wider Indigenous community.

Home life and other work She found a place to stay in Inala, but alcoholism and financial hardship forced the family into temporary accommodation from 1969 to 1972. Friends offered her their farm in The Gap in which to live and they moved there between 1972 and 1987.

The story of her life was written with her daughter Jackie Huggins, and Lillian Holt and published in 1994 – Auntie Rita. An extract of this book is included in the Anthology of Australian Aboriginal literature.