Charles Harris A Struggle for Justice William W. Emilsen Published by MediaCom Education Inc PO Box 610 Unley SA 5061 Australia Phone Toll Free 1800 811 311 www.mediacom.org.au © 2019 William W. Emilsen All rights reserved. This publication is copyright. Other than for the purposes of and subject to the conditions of the Copyright Act, no part of it may in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, microcopying, photocopying, recording or otherwise) be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted without prior written permission from the publisher. First printed July 2019 ISBN 9781925722208 A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia Contents Acknowledgments ....................................................................... v Foreword ..................................................................................... ix Introduction .................................................................................1 1. A Real Struggle .......................................................................9 2. Mission to Aboriginals and Islanders in North Queensland ...27 3. Urban Aboriginal Mission .....................................................39 4. Towards Crystal Creek ...........................................................63 5. Journey throughout the Nation ............................................81 6. National Black Congress ....................................................101 7. Turning Vision into Reality .................................................119 8. Building Firm Foundations .................................................135 9. The March for Justice, Freedom and Hope ..........................155 10. The Struggle for Justice Continues ....................................203 INDEX ...................................................................................231 A Struggle for Justice | iii Acknowledgments Throughout the long gestation of this book, there have been many people who have given me their time, knowledge and encouragement. Without their generous help I am not sure if I would have finished writing it. First of all, it is Charles’ widow, Dorothy (Aunty Dorrie) Harris–Gordon, who trusted me to write her late husband’s story and has encouraged me over the years to keep going. ”Bill, when are you going to finish that book?” she would gently nudge. Other members of Charles’ family were a great help: his nieces in Townsville, Robyn Maher and Lavanne Van Den Heuvel and his sister-in-law, Gladys Harris, also from Townsville, were a delight to get to know and were extraordinarily helpful in sharing their old photographs and memories of Charles. As the years pass, there are fewer and fewer people alive who remember Charles as a boy and young man so it was a special treat to meet Trevor Prior at his home in Ingham, Alexander Ross from Victoria Estate and Ruth Heron from Innisfail who all knew the young Charles. Before Charles became a Methodist pastor he was a member of the Assemblies of God and trained at the Commonwealth Bible College in Brisbane. For information about this period of Charles’ life, I am much indebted to the late Ed Smith from the Gold Coast, the late David Cartledge, Neil Scott and Ingrid Scott from Alphacrucis College, and Andrew Evans and Don Dayman who attended the Commonwealth Bible College at the same time as Charles. When I first started researching Charles’ life, there were many people living in Brisbane who remembered Charles’ ministry there. Thom Blake, Bob Eason, Pam Jones, Noel Preston, Jean Philips, John Woodley, and the late George Nash all willingly shared their memories of Charles’ ministry in the Urban Aboriginal Mission based at Paddington Methodist/Uniting Church. There are many librarians and archivists who have helped me locate information about Charles. In particular, I owe a debt to Nathan Miller and Bronwyn McBurnie at James Cook University’s Eddie A Struggle for Justice | v Mabo Library, Karan Moxham at Nungalinya College, Roger Ford at the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships in Brisbane, Deborah Close at the Townsville Local History Collection, Eileen Dwane at the State Library of Queensland and Christine Gordon, the Uniting Church’s Assembly Archivist, in Sydney. One of the pleasures of writing Charles Harris’ story has been the good will offered by so many people—a testimony to Charles himself, I believe. There are too many to name them all but I would like to pay tribute to the following who put me in touch with people who could either help me with my work or pointed me in the right direction: Jacob Cassidy from Ingham, Ian Boudry, Robert Bos, Doug Brandon and John Harrison from Brisbane, John Brown from Canberra, Djiniyini Gondarra and Helen Richmond from Darwin, Shayne Blackman, Moses Nelliman, Alan Randall from Townsville, Samson Lowa from Papua New Guinea, Mark Hutchison, Robert Stringer from Melbourne and the late Jack Frewen–Lord. The photographs in this book have come from a wide variety of sources. Some have come from family and friends of Charles, others from Uniting Church Assembly and Synod archives, and some from public records. In the process of writing this book I was fortunate to make contact with the distinguished photographer, Ramon Williams, now long retired, who shared some of his valuable photos of Charles taken at the anti- Bicentennial rally on 26 January 1988. As many of the photographs that I collected were damaged, marked or faded, my good friend, Hazel Hogarth, helped restore them. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to four special people— Bernard Clarke, Shirley Maddox, Ivan Roberts and my wife Carolyn— all of whom read part or whole of my manuscript. Their comments were insightful, always encouraging and spared me much heartache. Anne Pattel–Gray knew Charles better than most, especially during the time leading up to the March for Justice, Freedom and Hope. She has written on Charles’ contribution to Australian Indigenous theology in vi | Charles Harris several important works. I feel honoured just as I am sure that Charles, himself, would have been to have Anne write the Foreword to his story. Historical research does not require large sums of money but it does require some. Without some financial support, it would have been very difficult to do the necessary research that I did in Brisbane and north Queensland over the years. I am indebted to two institutions in this regard. Charles Sturt University’s Centre for Public and Contextual Theology (PACT) gave me a grant to do interstate research and the Australian Research Theology Foundation offered me a grant to assist me in preparing the manuscript for publication. Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to two people at MediaCom: my publisher: Ian Price, the Chief Executive Officer of MediaCom Education and Publishing and Alan McKee, the company’s book designer. In the tough world of Australian publishing, Ian has been a strong supporter of my historical endeavours and Alan has demonstrated utmost patience and care. A Struggle for Justice | vii Foreword I feel so very honoured to be asked by the author William Emilsen to write the foreword to this book that chronicles the life and achievements of the Rev. Charles Harris. Charles was a man born before his time; he was a pioneer with vision and extraordinary leadership. He believed that life was short and that he had so much he wanted and needed to accomplish for his people. The Rev. Charles Harris first came into my life when I was aged eleven. He and his wife Dorrie came to visit my mother (Jean Pattel), who was highly respected in the Methodist Church and also in the Aboriginal community, as they knew of her strong Christian stance. My mother was a proud and loyal Methodist come Uniting Church Christian and she raised all her children in the Methodist and Uniting Church tradition. They soon became family friends and frequent visitors to our home. We referred to them as Uncle Charlie and Aunty Dorrie and our love for them grew with each passing day. Uncle Charlie filled the gap that my father had left after he had deserted our family when I was ten years old. My father left us destitute and extremely vulnerable to the practice and forced removal of families and children under the Queensland Government Aborigine Protection Act. Uncle Charlie was a very important father figure in my life and Aunty Dorrie was like my second mother as mum and she were very close. At that time Uncle Charlie was a very conservative evangelical Christian and his theology tended to be that of the Pentecostal background. Uncle Charlie was driven to start his own church and asked my mother for her support to establish it. Uncle Charlie started the first Aboriginal Church in Townsville in Far North Queensland. I can remember the little weather board church with its narrow doorways in Garbutt and each Sunday the congregation grew until it was full to the brim. On one particular Sunday Uncle Charlie had just finished preaching hell fire and brim stone putting the fear of God into his congregation when he made an altar call for anyone seeking healing or wanting to accept Jesus A Struggle for Justice | ix as their Lord and Saviour to approach. Several Aboriginal people went to the front for prayer and the laying on of hands and Uncle Charlie was slaying them in the Spirit and they were going down like flies. This one man, whom Uncle Charlie and two other Christian men were praying for, went down under the Spirit and no sooner did he go down before he started to convulse and froth at the mouth. Uncle Charlie lifted his head and said to the congregation that this man is possessed by a demon and everyone that didn’t have a relationship with Jesus should leave because when he drives out the demon it would seek out anyone who did not have God as their Lord and Saviour. Immediately the majority of the congregation ran for the narrow door and began pushing and shoving each other to get out. I recall my twin sister Narelle and I laughing at them because it was such a funny sight to see. Some of these people considered themselves to be, prior to this, holier than thou, but their true colours shone through on this day.