A letter to the King: John Maynard

“It must have sent a shiver down their spines.” Professor John Maynard tells of Jane Duren writing to the King in protest at the treatment of Aboriginal people. She wrote as a member of the Australian Aborigines Progressive Association, Ray Maynard’s activist group of the 1920s. This letter was read and returned to NSW leading to reprisals against the activists, including Ray’s son Merv Maynard, John Maynard’s father.

Keywords: Childhood; racism; law; political activism; organisations; police

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