Gordon Briscoe

{{For|the fictional character Dr Gordon Briscoe played by David Tennant and John Glen|The Quatermass Experiment}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Gordon Briscoe

| image = Bobbi Sykes and Gordon Briscoe 1972.jpg

| caption = Briscoe with Bobbi Sykes in 1972

| birth_date = {{birth date text|1938}}

| birth_place = Alice Springs, Northern Territory

| death_date = {{Death date and given age|2023|6|30|84|df=y}}

| death_place =

| other_names =

| known_for =

| occupation = Research Fellow

| employer = Australian National University

| education = BA (Hist), MA, PhD - Australian National University

| nationality = Australian

}}

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.

Early life

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{{cite web|url=http://indigenousrights.net.au/person.asp?pID=1051 |title=People - Gordon Briscoe |publisher=National Museum of Australia |work=Collaborating for Indigenous Rights |accessdate=16 December 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080722045002/http://www.indigenousrights.net.au/person.asp?pID=1051 |archivedate=22 July 2008}} in Semaphore South, a beachside suburb of Adelaide near Port Adelaide, South Australia.{{cite web | last=Chlanda | first=Erwin | title=The Boys who made the Big Time | website=Alice Springs News | date=18 September 2013 | url=https://alicespringsnews.com.au/2013/09/18/the-boys-who-made-the-big-time/ | access-date=29 November 2020}} 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.{{cite web | last=Phillips | first=Sandra | title=Vince Copley had a vision for a better Australia – and he helped make it happen, with lifelong friend Charles Perkins | website= The Conversation | date=10 January 2022 | url=https://theconversation.com/vince-copley-had-a-vision-for-a-better-australia-and-he-helped-make-it-happen-with-lifelong-friend-charles-perkins-192097 | access-date=23 November 2023}}{{cite web | last=Copley | first=Vince | title=The Wonder of Little Things | website=HarperCollins Australia | date=12 December 2022 | url=https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780733342448/the-wonder-of-little-things/ | access-date=23 November 2023}}

Activism

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.{{cite web|url=http://acih.anu.edu.au/people/staff/gordon.php |title=Staff Profile - John Moriarty |publisher=Australian National University |accessdate=16 December 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080719010220/http://acih.anu.edu.au/people/staff/gordon.php |archive-date=19 July 2008}}

He was treasurer on the committee of the Aboriginal Publications Foundation, which published the magazine Identity, in the 1970s.{{cite web| url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/catalogue_resources/ms_3781_aboriginal_pubs.pdf| publisher= AIATSIS Library| title= Records of the Aboriginal Publications Foundation: MS3781 | access-date=29 September 2022}}

Soccer

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.{{cite web | url=http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2826289 | title=Catalogue - Summary | year=1996 | publisher=National Library of Australia | accessdate=16 December 2008}}{{cite book | title=The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins | publisher=Cambridge University Press | last=Jupp | first=James | year=2001 | page=248 | isbn=0-521-80789-1}}

Briscoe, along with Perkins and Moriarty, later played recreational soccer with the Australian National University Soccer Club from 1968 to about 1972.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136950028 |title=$2,000 fee on Perkins waived |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=43 |issue=12,392 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=16 August 1969 |accessdate=10 June 2021 |page=34 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131792520 |title=Soccer club faces censure over Perkins |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=43 |issue=12,349 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=27 June 1969 |accessdate=10 June 2021 |page=18 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136948385 |title=Perkins stunned by club's refusal to cut fee |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=43 |issue=12,385 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=8 August 1969 |accessdate=10 June 2021 |page=18 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article140093359 |title=SPORTS SHORTS |newspaper=Woroni |volume=22 |issue=3 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=25 March 1970 |accessdate=10 June 2021 |page=14 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Academia

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.{{cite journal|url=https://www.stfrancishouse.com.au/pdf/Gordon_Briscoe_Article.pdf|title=The First Aboriginal Doctor: Gordon Briscoe|journal= Alice Springs News Online |first=Mark J. |last=Smith|date=19 April 2019}}{{efn|Although this article says he was the first Indigenous Australian to earn a PhD, other sources show that this is not so. There's Eve Fesl in 1988,[https://glottolog.org/resource/reference/id/5186 Eve Fesl on Glottolog] and [https://ajie.atsis.uq.edu.au/ajie/article/view/173/114 this study] says "the earliest record that we could find was the PhD awarded to Dr Bill Jonas in 1980 by the University of Papua New Guinea" and "we estimate that approximately 25 Indigenous people were awarded their doctorate [during the 1980s]" (some at least from overseas universities).}}

Briscoe became inaugural Research Fellow of ANU's Australian Centre for Indigenous History in 2003.{{cite web | title=Gordon Briscoe| website=ANU Press | url=https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/authors-editors/gordon-briscoe | access-date=24 November 2023}}{{cite web | title=About | website=School of History | date=25 February 2010 | url=https://history.cass.anu.edu.au/centres/acih/about | access-date=24 November 2023}}

Publications

Briscoe's memoir, Racial Folly: A Twentieth-Century Aboriginal Family was published by ANU Press in 2010 as an open access book. It "shows us the history of an Aboriginal family who lived under the race laws, practices and policies of Australia in the twentieth century. It tells the story of a people trapped in ideological folly spawned to solve 'the half-caste problem'"{{Cite book |last=Briscoe |first=Gordon |url=https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/aboriginal-history/racial-folly |title=Racial Folly |year=2010 |publisher=ANU Press |isbn=978-1-921666-21-6 |language=en |doi=10.22459/rf.02.2010 |doi-access=free }}

He also wrote a number of books and reports on Aboriginal health and history, including:

Counting, Health and Identity: A History of Aboriginal Health and Demography in Western Australia and Queensland, 1900-1940{{Cite book |last=Briscoe |first=Gordon |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/171272595 |title=Counting, health and identity : a history of aboriginal health and demography in western ... d queensland, 1900?1940. |date=2003 |publisher=Aboriginal Studies Press |isbn=0-85575-524-5 |location=[Place of publication not identified] |oclc=171272595}} published by Aboriginal Studies Press in 2003,
Queensland Aborigines and the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919{{Cite book |last=Briscoe |first=Gordon |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38377294 |title=Queensland Aborigines and the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 |date=1996 |publisher=Aboriginal Studies Press |others=Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies |isbn=0-85575-288-2 |location=Canberra |oclc=38377294}} published in 1996, which 'Discusses impact of the Spanish Influenza pandemic on Queensland Aborigines who accounted for 30 per cent of the death toll in Queensland'.

Death

Briscoe died on 30 June 2023 at the age of 84.{{cite web|url=https://cass.anu.edu.au/news/memorium-dr-gordon-briscoe-ao|title=In Memorium: Dr Gordon Briscoe AO|work=Australia National University|date=31 July 2023}}{{cite web|url=https://www.hollows.org/au/latest/the-fred-hollows-foundation-pays-tribute-to-aboriginal-academic-and-activist-dr-gordon-briscoe|title=Dr Gordon Briscoe Remembered|work=The Fred Hollows Foundation|year=2023}}