Sir Douglas Nicholls

Hi and welcome to Van Life Devotions. I grew up in Melbourne and I loved playing and watching footy. Each fortnight, my brothers and I would go to Windy Hill with my Aunty Gwen and watch the mighty bombers. But then my family moved to Sydney and after a few years we started to follow The Swans when they formed 41 years ago. The love for footy continued in the family with our daughter Brianna who, in 2019, played for the Fremantle dockers in the AFLW.

This weekend and next are two rounds in the AFL – Australian Football League that are named after Sir Doug Nicholls as they celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and their contribution to footy.

Sir Doug was an inspirational person. His achievements included being talented at sports as he was a first-class sprinter, a boxer, and played top level footy for Fitzroy in the then VFA competition and represented Victoria against Western Australia. He was a Churches of Christ pastor in Fitzroy where he ministered to the indigenous of that area. He and his wife formed an Aboriginal Girls’ Hostel in 1956, for which they acted as house parents. Sir Doug was knighted by the Queen, and he became the first indigenous Governor of South Australia. What amazing achievements.

The more I researched Sir Doug the more I’ve become inspired by him. Let me share with you why.

Sir Doug inspires me by what he fought against. At a young age he witnessed his own sister being taken away by authorities in what has become known as the stolen generation. I can’t fathom the impact this had on so many. He himself experienced racism on numerous occasions including the time when all his Carlton footy team received a rub down but when it came to his turn he was refused because he was black. As such he tirelessly spoke out against racism, lobbied government leaders, and participated in the first Day of Mourning protest for Aborigines held in on 26 January 1938, where Indigenous leaders from across the country called for change the Constitution.

I am also inspired by Sir Doug by his standing up for indigenous rights. He served as secretary and then as president of the Australian Aborigines League where he helped drive a campaign for reconciliation. It was the beginning of a long, hard road of campaigns that in 1967 the Australian Constitution via a referendum was changed that at last included Indigenous Australians in the census. He had a saying, “to get a tune out of the piano, you can play the black notes, and you can play the white notes. But to get harmony you need both.”

I’m inspired by what Sir Doug preached – both in Word and Deed, from the pulpit and in the streets. Following his mother’s death, he revisited the Church of Christ in Northcote, where they had worshipped together. On the 17 July 1932 he experienced a conversion. He was soon baptised and witnessed openly. When he worked as a social worker in the Fitzroy Aboriginal community, he cared for those trapped in alcohol abuse, gambling, and other social problems. Indigenous people gathered to him and eventually the group was so large that he became the pastor of the first Aboriginal Church of Christ in Australia. There he preached powerfully.

I asked my mum, who was a Churches of Christ member in those days, about Sir Doug and she reminded me that he visited our house in Cheltenham where dad was a pastor, and that Churches of Christ were very proud of him as he was a wonderful Christian leader. It is of little surprise that when the Queen asked Sir Doug at Buckingham Place prior to conferring his Knighthood, “How have you been able to achieve what you have?”, he responded, “I met a man named Jesus Christ”.

What an inspiring man. No wonder he became Father of the Year, crowned Melbourne’s king of Moomba, had annually two rounds of AFL Footy named after him, and had a stamp named in his honour. What he fought against, stood up for, and preached about reminds me of the words that God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow” (Isaiah 1:17 NIV). These words of God and the example of Sir Doug challenges me to do what I can for the oppressed. What about you?

Let’s pray.

God our Father. Sorry for our treatment of our indigenous brothers and sisters over many years. We pray for the gap to close. Thank you for Sir Doug Nicholls for his giant heart and how he went about reconciliation. O God, preserve us who travel; surround us with your loving care; protect us from every danger; and bring us in safety to our journey’s end; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

David Moyes