Cirrus@Austlit

'Dr Charles Duguid OBE campaigned for Aboriginal rights from the late 1920s to the 1980s. Mrs Phyllis Duguid OAM joined him in that campaign from 1930. The lectures which carry their name, delivered by distinguished Indigenous academics and community leaders, extend their work and kink it to ever-broadening fields of local, national and international Indigenous affairs - especially in matters of health, education, governance, cultural affirmation and human rights. Taken together, the lectures mark intergenerational shifts in thinking, language and positioning to form a crossover record of lives dedicated to struggle and the power of intelligent advocacy.' (Introduction)

'This collection celebrates the contribution to public intellectual life - in South Australia and beyond - of eleven respected Indigenous educators, community leaders and activists: the Duguid lecturers.

'Their work, in turn, honours the dedication of Dr Charles and Phyllis Duguid in advancing the cultural, social and political interests of Indigenous Australians from the 1930s to the 1990s.

'The Duguid Memorial Lectures, 1994–2014, offer telling insights into the endeavours of individuals, communities and movements dedicated to improving Indigenous education, health, cultural practice and community governance. They prepare the ground and point the way for generations of leaders to come.

'The Duguids and the Duguid lecturers are partners in the long, continuing campaign for a reconciled Australia.' (Publication summary)

'Twenty-five years after Elliott Johnston’s thorough and prescient Report on the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, juvenile justice, freedom of speech, racial discrimination, human rights and a referendum on constitutional ‘recognition’ of Indigenous Australians remain subjects of contestation, national debate and international scrutiny.'

'In this collection, 17 distinguished Indigenous and non-Indigenous jurists, scholars and community leaders show common cause with Johnston. They pursue better ways of understanding social values, justice and equality expressed through issues of native title, incarceration rates, cultural protection, self-determination and rights of Indigenous peoples. They look to the law as a site of hope and an instrument of public education and principled change.' (Source: The Federation Press website)

'Bound and Unbound: Sovereign Acts – Act II, in October 2015, builds on the success of Act I, extending these ideas and their expression through embodied projection and performance. Both Acts engage Aboriginal community members who have historically been contained and excluded within and beyond the mortar and boundaries of Adelaide’s so-called ‘cultural precinct’. When our ancestors’ voices are heard and listened to, this compels a call and response engagement with the broader Aboriginal community. We can all speak back through individual and collective Sovereign Acts.' (Source: Flinders University website)