Hubbry Logo
search
logo
1176746

Gordon Briscoe

logo
Community Hub0 Subscribers
Write something...
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
See all
Gordon Briscoe

Gordon Briscoe AO (1938 – 30 June 2023) was an Aboriginal Australian academic and activist. In 1997, he was awarded a PhD from the Australian National University. He was also a soccer player.

Born in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia, Briscoe was descended from the Marduntjara and Pitjantjatjara nations of Central Australia. He was removed from his mother as a child and was educated at St Francis House in Semaphore South, a beachside suburb of Adelaide near Port Adelaide, South Australia. There he was treated with kindness, sent to the local school, and met other future Aboriginal leaders and activists, including Charles Perkins, John Kundereri Moriarty, Richie Bray, Vince Copley, Malcolm Cooper, and others.

Briscoe was involved in the establishment in New South Wales of the Aboriginal Progress Association in the 1950s, the Aboriginal Legal Service in the 1960s and the Aboriginal Medical Service in 1972.

He was treasurer on the committee of the Aboriginal Publications Foundation, which published the magazine Identity, in the 1970s.

After playing state league for Adelaide Croatia alongside Charles Perkins and John Moriarty, Briscoe moved to England in 1958 with the hope of playing professional football. He had stints at Barnet and Preston North End (although he did not make a first team appearance), before returning to Australia at the suggestion of his former schoolmate and teammate Perkins.

Briscoe, along with Perkins and Moriarty, later played recreational soccer with the Australian National University Soccer Club from 1968 to about 1972.

In 1981, Briscoe began his academic career with the Australian National University (ANU). His focus was on Indigenous history and he was involved in the production of the SBS documentary First Australians. In 1997, he was awarded a PhD from ANU.

Briscoe became inaugural Research Fellow of ANU's Australian Centre for Indigenous History in 2003.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.