Rodney Stevens

The life and work of Yaegl elder and trailblazing international human rights activist Joyce Clague MBE is being celebrated across Australia and around the world after her passing last week.

Born on July 22, 1938, after growing up in the Lower Clarence, Joyce’s rise to prominence began early in her life when she was recognised by the Australian Woman’s Weekly Magazine in 1960 as a modest but ambitious young girl from the bush.

Joyce Caroline Clague nee Mercy was the daughter of Hilda Randall and Glen Mercy two prominent family names of the lower Clarence.

She was raised on Ulgundahi Island on the Clarence River near Maclean.

“A Trailblazer and community activist locally, nationally and to the world, passed away peacefully to the Dreaming on the 25th of September 2024,” the family said.

“She spent all of her life fighting for the rights of her people and helping to establish self-determination for their lives.

“Her early years as a nurse, helped her to see the needs for her people and see the injustice that she wanted to correct for her people,” her daughter Pauline said.

She realised her voice mattered and after meeting other activist in Sydney she knew that truth-telling and understanding the political space was important to inform the wider community of the issues that needed to be addressed.

“Mum became a fiery and intelligent spokesperson for the Aboriginal Progressive Association and FCAATSI,” Pauline said.

“Leading to her do many speaking engagements in the sixties all over Sydney and Internationally, at this time she became the inaugural Welfare Officer at the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs.”

Her attendance at the Asian Christian Youth Assembly in the Philippines in 1964 put her in the path of Colin Clague, who would become her husband.

The two of them would become an unstoppable team for social justice and committed to working to make changes for the community.

In 1966 they married, and their honeymoon was travelling to the Northern Territory as Colin’s work as Social Worker was in Darwin, and six months later to Alice Springs.

“Mum took on some matron work in homes in the NT and they began fostering and adopting Aboriginal children who needed support outside of business hours,” Pauline said.

This led Joyce to forge enduring relationships with First Nations people all over the Northern Territory.

“Through her strong affiliations with the peoples of Central Australia, including those from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands, the Arrernte, Pintubi, and Warlpiri, she helped establish some of the organisations and community ventures in central Australia,” Pauline said.

“She was one of the founders of the Institute for Aboriginal Development and helped to negotiate the buying of Willowra Station.”

From there Joyce established herself as a prominent national and international human rights activist.

She was influential in promoting the YES vote for the 1967 Constitutional Referendum and in the 1996 native title claim, known as Yaegl #1, which was settled in 2015

As Joyce’s profile grew it catapulted her onto the international stage when she was the first Indigenous person to represent Australia at a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNESCO conference in India, she also travelled to Europe, the US and Africa as a Commissioner of the World Council of Churches program to combat racism.

On hearing of the sale of Ulgundahi Island by the NSW government, she negotiated the island to be handed back to the community.  

When they decided it was important to return to Yaegl country in 1975, Joyce and Colin returned to Maclean and helped established the Nungera Co-Operative, securing funding for new housing and jobs for Yagel people.

They set up Woolitji co-operative in the old Bank of New Wales in River Street, Maclean, as an Art Gallery and Nursery called Woolitji House.

Just two years later, in recognition of her services to combat racism and education in promoting opportunities in NSW for Aboriginal people, Joyce was awarded the Member of the British Empire, becoming Joyce Clague MBE in 1977.

In 1996, Joyce and fellow Yaegl elder Della Walker lodged the first stage of what became a landmark Native Title claim which gave Yaegl people land and sea rights in the Clarence Valley around Yamba.

Joyce’s family said her funeral will be held at Grafton’s Christ Church Cathedral on November 9, from 11am.

To leave a tribute to Joyce or a message to the Clague family visit www.joyceclague.com