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This month The Contrarian looks at the the formation of two influential Aboriginal political organisations. Legal power was given to the NSW Aborigines Protection Board in 1909 with the passing of the Aborigines Protection Act and later in 1937 when the Policy of Assimilation was formalised. It was in this political context that the Australian Aborigines League was formed in Melbourne in 1933 and the Aborigines Progressive Association began in Sydney in 1937.
Known in her day as 'The Captain's Lady', Mary Ann Ward (nee Bugg) was the little-known Aboriginal wife of the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt, otherwise known as Fred Ward. Mary Ann a Wormi woman, was intelligent, articulate and sophisticated. For seven years she devoted herself to Captain Thunderbolt's cause.
