People Australia

John Francis (Jack) McGinness (1902-1973) miner, trade union official and Aboriginal activist

Birth: 20 March 1902, at a railway fettler’s camp thirty-four miles from Darwin, Northern Territory, son of Stephen Joseph McGinness (1855-1918), a ganger on the North Australian railway and tin miner, born in United Sates of America of Irish parents, and Alngindabu (Lucy) (c.1874-1961), born at Chapana, near Finniss River (Kurinju), NT, an Aboriginal elder and one of the few remaining members of her clan the Kungarakan (Paperbark People), trained as cook and seamstress. Marriage: 1927 at Darwin to Violet Wakelin (c.1908-1954), originally from Wave Hill. They had two sons and seven daughters. Death: 6 February 1973 at Darwin; usual residence Stretton Street, Fannie Bay. Religion: Catholic. 

• His father had arrived in Australia about 1888.
• Family moved to West Arm, an inlet of Darwin Harbour, in 1908 to take up a prospecting lease for tin, named ‘The Lucy’ after the mother. Jack learnt both Kungarakan and Irish language and culture. Schooled in traditional food gathering and hunting techniques.
• Assisted his father with work in tin mine until about 1912, and was then sent for education to Catholic nuns in Darwin with one brother and one sister. Boarded in convent from about 1912 to about 1914.
• Returned to assist his father in tin mine from about 1914 until 1918 (when his father died). Moved to Darwin in 1918 and onto Delissaville as stationhand on cattle station.
• Was a striker in brother-in-law Edward’s blacksmith shop, a miner and a fettler on railways.
• Travelled to Victoria and gained work with the State Rivers & Waters Supply Commission at Frankston. Returned to NT in 1923 and joined North Australia Industrial Union (later North Australian Workers Union NAWU), of which he was president in about 1951 and 1957.
• Involved in war services during World War II working on the railways.
• A foundation member of the Halfcaste Progress Association in 1936 and president. Activities were interrupted by WWII, re-grouped under same leadership in 1950 and gained a groundswell of new supporters including the NAWU.
• Lobbied with group for full citizenship rights for Aborigines of mixed decent in 1951, which would abolish a ‘dog license’ system of identification, and for abolition of the restrictive Aboriginal Ordinance legislation.
• Was NAWU representative at the Australian Council of Trade Unions congress in Melbourne in 1951 and addressed the sympathetic meeting.
• Aligned himself with the moderate faction of the NAWU which finally ousted the Communist Party of Australia and the leftwing from the executive in 1952. Gained full citizenship for NT Halfcastes in 1953.
• Active sprinter and Australian Rules football player. Played for Vesteys team which later became Buffaloes Football Club and Darwin Football Club, in which he gained life membership.
• Cause of death: chronic airways disease (5 years), cor pulmonale (2 days) and dehydration (2 days).
• Father of Kungarakan-Gurindji elder, Kathy Mills (OAM).

Sources
Kathy Mills, Jungung: Jack McGinness: plaiting the grass for family, community & the future 1902-1973 (Darwin, 2019)