Abo Call

Front page of The Australian Abo Call April 1938

The Australian Abo Call was the first Aboriginal-focused publication printed in Australia. There were a total of six issues, all published in 1938. It was written and edited by John (Jack) Patten, co-founder of the Aborigines Progressive Association and featured news gathered by Patten on his travels through Eastern Australia, and from correspondents nationwide. The newspaper's tagline was "The Voice of the Aborigines".

William Ferguson who co-founded the Aborigines Progressive Association 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 J. B. Miles. Ferguson also considered the newspaper's title to be insulting towards Aborigines. In contemporary Australian use 'Abo' is considered an offensive term. Abo Call closed down after six months of publication, due to lack of funds.

Archives

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. The State Library of New South Wales holds the six issues that were published, in the collection of Percy Reginald Stephenson's papers.

See also

• List of Newspapers in Australia

External links

• Abo Call archive Purchase re-produced, full-scale replicas for each edition of Abo Call.