Abo Call

There was a total of six issues of The Australian Abo Call, all published between April and September 1938.{{Citation | author1=Patten, J. T. | author2=Aborigines Progressive Association | title=The Australian Abo call the voice of the Aborigines | date=1938 | publisher=J.T. Patten | issn=1447-9060 }} It was the first publication in Australia focused solely on Aboriginal issues and politics.{{cite journal|last=Meadows|first=Michael|author2=Helen Molnar|title=Bridging the Gaps: Towards a history of Indigenous media in Australia|journal=Media History|year=2002|volume=8|issue=11|pages=9–20|doi=10.1080/13688800220134473}}

The paper was written and edited by John (Jack) Patten, who co-founded of the Aborigines Progressive Association (APA) in 1937, and featured news gathered by Patten on his travels through eastern Australia, as well as from correspondents nationwide. The newspaper's tagline was "The Voice of the Aborigines".{{cite web|title=The Australian Abo Call: the voice of the Aborigines|url=http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/history_nation/indigenous/newspapers/|series=Discover Collections: Indigenous Australians|publisher=State Library of NSW|accessdate=28 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226233454/http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/history_nation/indigenous/newspapers/|archive-date=26 February 2014|url-status=dead}}

William Ferguson, who co-founded the APA with Patten, was opposed to the publication of the Abo Call on the grounds that he believed it was a mouthpiece for its right-wing financial backers P. R. Stephensen and William John Miles. Ferguson also considered the newspaper's title to be insulting towards Aborigines.{{efn|In contemporary Australian use "Abo" is considered an offensive term.}}

Stephensen was known as a writer and publisher, and was honorary secretary of the Aboriginal Citizenship Committee, a support group of the APA, but was also known for turning to pro-Fascist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Communist views in his magazine The Publicist which he founded in 1936.{{cite book |last1=Cunneen |first1=Chris |title=Miles, William John (1871–1942) |chapter=William John Miles (1871–1942) |chapter-url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/miles-william-john-7576 |website=Australian Dictionary of Biography |publisher=Australian National University |quote=This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, (Melbourne University Press), 1986}}

Abo Call closed down after six months of publication, due to lack of funds.

Abo Call is available online through Trove, a service hosted at the National Library of Australia which allows access to historic Australian periodicals and newspapers.{{cite web|title=The Australian Abo Call|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title51|publisher=National Library of Australia|accessdate=28 March 2013}}

The State Library of New South Wales holds the six issues that were published, among Percy Reginald Stephensen's papers.{{cite web|title=P. R. Stephensen – Papers and pictorial material, ca. 1905-1971|url=http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemdetailpaged.aspx?itemid=954390|publisher=State Library of NSW|accessdate=28 March 2013}}{{cite journal| last=Brown| first=Jerelynn| title=Tabloids in the State Library of NSW collection: A reflection of life in Australia|journal=Australian Journal of Communication| year=2011| volume=38|issue=2|pages=107–121}}

Marcia Langton later wrote that she and the other founders of the monthly paper Koori Bina at Black Women's Action in 1976 had been inspired by Abo Call.{{cite web | title= Black Women's Action Group | website=Redfern Oral History | date=26 September 2022 | url=http://redfernoralhistory.org/Inthepast/BlackWomensActionGroup19761980s/tabid/273/Default.aspx | access-date=26 September 2022}}{{cite journal | last1=Langton | first1=Marcia |author1-link= Marcia Langton| last2=Kirkpatrick | first2=Brownlee | title=A listing of Aboriginal periodicals | journal=Aboriginal History | publisher=ANU Press | volume=3 | issue=1/2 | year=1979 | issn=0314-8769 | jstor=24045737 | pages=120–127 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24045737 | access-date=26 September 2022}} [https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p71041/pdf/sources05.pdf PDF]

• List of newspapers in Australia

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130410011953/http://www.abocall.com.au/ Abo Call archive] Purchase re-produced, full-scale replicas for each edition of Abo Call.
• {{trove newspaper|51|The Australian Abo Call|National : 1938}}

Category:Defunct newspapers published in Australia

Category:Indigenous Australian mass media

Category:1938 establishments in Australia

Category:1938 disestablishments in Australia