22 Facts About Phyllis Duguid

Phyllis Duguid 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.

Phyllis Duguid founded the League for the Protection and Advancement of Aboriginal and Half-Caste Women, which later became the Aborigines' Advancement League of South Australia.

The third child of six children, Phyllis Duguid was born on 16 October 1904 at Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia.

Phyllis Duguid's father, Frank Lade, 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 Duguid attended Miss Henderson's school for girls, and then Methodist Ladies' College.

Phyllis Duguid worked briefly as an English tutor at the university, later became a senior English teacher at the Presbyterian Girls' College in Adelaide, and married the medical doctor Charles Phyllis Duguid on 18 December 1930 at the Methodist Church, Kent Town, South Australia.

Phyllis Duguid "epitomized the strength of gentleness" and co-promoted Charles' passion for the cause of Aboriginal justice, was a prominent activist for the welfare of Aboriginal women in her own right and edited Charles' writings.

Phyllis 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 in the Northern Territory seven months earlier was overturned by the High Court of Australia.

Phyllis Duguid heard about her husband's trip to the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara lands in 1935, and supported his proposal to create the Ernabella Mission.

Eaton, Phyllis Duguid formed the League for the Protection and Advancement of Aboriginal and Half-Caste Women, consisting of group of non-Aboriginal women representing Christian and other women's organisations, the first of its kind in Australia.

Phyllis Duguid was the founding president of the League, and an active member of several committees, including the Equality Committee of the League of Women Voters.

Sexton of the Aborigines' Friends' Association, Phyllis Duguid said that the work her group proposed was essentially women's work, for women and by women.

Phyllis Duguid continued to take a close interest in the Hostel, and the couple once hosted 34 of the girls at their home over six weeks.

Phyllis 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.

Phyllis Duguid was chairperson of the first meeting of the Status of Women Council in South Australia.

Phyllis Duguid was an executive member of the WCTU and the Women's Non-Party Political Association, and board member of the South Australian government's Children's Welfare and Public Relief Board for many years.

Phyllis Duguid had a flair for writing and public speaking, enriched by a love of literature.

Phyllis Duguid wrote and spoke on issues such as equal pay for equal work, temperance, prison reform, and prostitution.

Phyllis Duguid wrote a booklet entitled The Economic Status of the Homemaker in 1944, in which she advocated "homes founded on the true partnership of men and women who are free, equal and interdependent", that "the political emancipation of women can never be complete so long as a large proportion of them are economically dependent", and argued for paying wages to homemakers.

Phyllis Duguid 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.

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

The Phyllis Duguid Travelling Scholarship is enabled by an endowment made in 2002 to the ANU's Endowment for Excellence by Andrew Phyllis Duguid and Rosemary Douglas in recognition of their parents' contribution.