Australian Politician who was the first Indigenous Australian to be a member of the Parliament of Australia, an office he served from 1971 to 1983.
He was a farm laborer before becoming Assistant Settlement Overseer at Palm Island.
He was named Australian of the Year in 1979 and in 1998 he was elected to the Constitutional Convention as a candidate of Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy.
He never knew his father.
He and Jamie Briggs have both been members of Australian Parliament.
