John Newfong, Sydney Town Hall28 April 1970

John Newfong

‘Low Wages. No wages. Atrophy and ill health. A landless people in our fathers’ land! For the last 200 years, this, unfortunately, has been the “badge of all our tribe”.’ 

John Newfong was Australia’s first mainstream Indigenous journalist. A Ngugi man, originally from Brisbane. He moved to Sydney when offered a job with the Sydney Morning Herald. At the beginning of 1970 he was elected general secretary of FCAATSI. 

^{Quote from Day of Mourning protest program, April 1970}