Bain Attwood, ‘A sense of kin’ The Life of William Cooper

William Cooper was a pioneering Indigenous activist, notable for his famous petition to King George VI for an Aboriginal representative in the Australian parliament, his call for a day of mourning after 150 years of colonisation, the walk-off of the Yorta Yorta people from Cummeragunja reserve in 1939, and his opposition to the establishment of an Aboriginal regiment in the Second World War. In his later years Cooper wrote several letters lobbying for change from Prime Minister Robert Menzies, who was then preoccupied in directing Australia’s war-effort. While Cooper achieved only limited cut-through in his lifetime, he laid the foundation for many to follow in his footsteps. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer discusses William Cooper with the author of An Aboriginal Life Story Professor Bain Attwood.