Winifred Doris (Joyce) Wilding

Joyce Wilding (1909 – 1978) was an activist for indigenous rights in Queensland, Australia in the 1950s and 1960s and a community worker.

Early life Wilding was born Doris Winifred Harman on 3 January 1909 in Southampton, England to Job Henry Harman, a retired soldier, and his Anglo-Indian wife Sarah Florence, née Minty. Startled by the response of her white guests, Wilding then opened her home to homeless Aboriginal people and the boarding house was soon overcrowded. She received death threats and frequent abuse.

In 1961, Wilding helped to form the One People of Australia League (OPAL), an organisation dedicated to promoting co-operation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, with a view to assimilation of Aboriginal people into white Australian culture. This goal put the organisation at odds with other Aboriginal rights groups, but it resulted in OPAL securing a great deal of government funding, enabling it to provide housing, education and welfare assistance to disadvantaged Aboriginal people in Queensland. Neville Bonner was president of OPAL from 1968 to 1975.

In 1970, OPAL opened the Joyce Wilding Home in Eight Mile Plains, Brisbane, which was a refuge for Aboriginal widows, deserted mothers and children. Wilding became matron of the home the same year. The institution still provides short-term accommodation for Aboriginal women and their children, and is now known as the Opal Joyce Wilding Hostel.

Community work In 1957, Wilding was a founding member of the St Veronica Welfare Committee, an organisation founded in West End, Brisbane initially to raise money for refugees. She travelled to India and Bangladesh to provide humanitarian aid and founded a relief society to send blankets, clothing and medical equipment to Dr R.R. Doshi’s tuberculosis clinic at Anand, Gujarat.

In 1966, Wilding was made the Quota Club of Brisbane's 'Woman of the Year'.