PERKINS
Hetty
1895 — 8 December 1979
AKA: Hetti
Aboriginal or Torrest Stait Islander: Yes
Additional Information
Special Achievements
- Pioneer of Central Australian pastoral leases.
- At the Garden station, north-west of Arltunga, she worked on the property and helped to manage it.
- In 1928 she went to the Jay Creek institution for 'half-castes' where she worked as 'senior dormitory girl'. In 1932 it was moved to the Alice Springs telegraph-station buildings and was thereafter known as The Bungalow. Hetty had charge of the infants' dormitory and supervised the cooking.
Additional Information
- An Alice Springs nursing home for elderly Aborigines is named in her honour.
- Her son Charles was the first Aboriginal secretary (1984-88) of the Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs;
- her grand-daughter Patricia Turner was the first Aboriginal chief executive officer (1994-98) of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission; her grandson Neville Perkins was secretary (1987-88) of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, New South Wales.
Resources
Link - Perkins, Hetty (1905? - 1979)
The Australian Women's Register
Link - Hetty Perkins
Wikipedia
Link - Perkins, Hetty (1895–1979)
Australian Dictionary of Biography
Image - Hetty Perkins
Title: Hetty Perkins Photo No: PH0254/0001 Citation address: http://hdl.handle.net/10070/16985 Date taken: 1-Jan-1938 Place: Alice Springs Collection: E. K. Leslie Collection. Description: Hetty Perkins with twin babies. The twins are sleeping on a cane chair and dressed as European babies. It was unusual for Aboriginal twins to survive. Hetty Perkins was Charles Perkins mother. Copyright owner: Northern Territory Library.
Territory Stories - free of known copyright restrictions
Image - Hetty Perkins
Title: Hetty Perkins, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, ca. 1975 / Bruce Howard. Creator: Howard, Bruce, 1936- Other Creators: Larkins, John, 1943-. Sheilas : a tribute to Australian women. Published: ca. 1975. Series: Sheilas, a tribute to Australian women collection, ca. 1975. Notes: Hetty was an Aranda woman who lived in the Northern Territory in the early to mid 20th Century.
Photo used with permission of Bruce Howard.
References
- Read, Peter. (1990). Charles Perkins: A Biography. Ringwood, Victoria: Viking. Chapter 1: 'Nother name, 'nother country - 1870-1945, pages 1-23,
- Slee, Amruta. (2010, October). Soul Sister. Qantas, 61-67.
