Alma Beryl Thorpe (born 1935) is an Australian

Aboriginal elder Australian Aboriginal elders are highly respected people within Australia and their respective Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. An elder has been defined as "someone who has gained recognition as a custodian of knowledge and ...

and activist. In 1973, she co-founded the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS), together with her mother, Edna Brown, and

Bruce McGuinness Bruce Brian McGuinness (17 June 1939 – 5 September 2003) was an Australian Aboriginal activist. He was active in and led the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League, and is known for founding and running ''The Koorier'', which was the first Ab ...

Early life and education

Thorpe was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

during the

Great Depression in Australia Australia was affected badly during the period of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Depression began with the Wall Street crash of 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. As in other nations, Australia had years of high unemployment, poverty, ...

in 1935, and her family lived in the suburb of Fitzroy. Her mother was Edna Brown, who, after being forced off the

Framlingham Aboriginal Reserve Framlingham is a rural township located by the Hopkins River in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, about north-east of the coastal city of Warrnambool. In the 2016 census, the township had a population of 158. The town lies within ...

in 1932, aged 15, became a community organiser in Fitzroy. She set up an Aboriginal funeral fund from her new home, after observing many homeless Aboriginal men being buried in

pauper's grave A potter's field, paupers' grave or common grave is a place for the burial of unknown, unclaimed or indigent people. "Potter's field" is of Biblical origin, referring to Akeldama (meaning ''field of blood'' in Aramaic), stated to have been pur ...

s. Her father, James Brown, was a second-generation Scottish-Australian who worked for

Victorian Railways The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...

and was a communist involved in the labour movement. Thorpe left school at the age of 12 and worked in a

shoe factory Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or ''cordwainers'' (sometimes misidentified as cobblers, who repair shoes rather than make them). In the 18th cent ...

, and at 18 married and moved to the town of

Yallourn Yallourn, Victoria was a company town in Victoria, Australia built between 1921 and 1961 to house employees of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV), who operated the nearby Yallourn Power Station complex. However, expansion of th ...

. In the 1960s, Thorpe separated from her husband and returned to Melbourne, along with her children, and began work as a

barmaid A bartender (also known as a barkeep or barman or barmaid or a mixologist) is a person who formulates and serves alcoholic or soft drink beverages behind the bar, usually in a licensed establishment as well as in restaurants and nightclubs, b ...

Achievements

Inspired by her mother, Edna, Thorpe joined community leaders such as Geraldine Briggs and

Margaret Tucker Margaret Lilardia Tucker MBE (28 March 1904 – 23 August 1996) was an Aboriginal Australian activist and writer who was among the first Aboriginal authors to publish an autobiography ''If Everyone Cared'', in 1977; a new edition of this ...

in protests for Aboriginal rights. In 1972, she was involved in setting up the

Aboriginal Tent Embassy The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is a permanent protest occupation site as a focus for representing the political rights of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people. Established on 26 January (Australia Day) 1972, and celebrating ...

. In 1973, together with her mother and co-founder

, she helped to establish the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS) to help the Aboriginal community with their health and wellbeing. Through her communist connections, she had been able to enter China and observe the 'barefoot doctors' program; from this experience came her concept of the Aboriginal Health Worker. According to McGuinness, "Without Alma Thorpe there wouldn't have been a health service". Thorpe also set up the Yappera Children's Service to provide childcare, and in 1977, a youth club and gym, later renamed Melbourne Aboriginal Youth Sport and Recreation (MAYSAR).

Current positions

, she is Elder in Residence at the Institute of Koorie Education at

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974 with antecedent history since 1887, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia and a founding father of Australian Fede ...

and continues her work with MAYSAR.

Recognition

For all of her hard work in the Aboriginal community she was made a lifetime member of the

Aborigines Advancement League The Aboriginal Advancement League was founded in 1957 as the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League (VAAL), is the oldest Aboriginal rights organisation in Australia still in operation. Its precursor organisations were the Australian Abori ...

Personal life and family

Thorpe had seven children with her husband and later fostered two more on her own. Her daughter

Marjorie Thorpe Marjorie Ruth Thorpe is a Trinidadian academic, lecturer, former diplomat and the first woman to have chaired the Public Service Commission (PSC) in Trinidad and Tobago.Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Gover ...

inquiry that produced the ''

Bringing Them Home ''Bringing Them Home'' is the 1997 Australian ''Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families''. The report marked a pivotal moment in the controversy that has come to ...

'' report, and later a member of the

Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Reconciliation in Australia is a process which officially began in 1991, focused on the improvement of relations between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia and the rest of the population. The Council for Aboriginal R ...

, and a preselected

Australian Greens The Australian Greens, commonly referred to simply as the Greens, are a Left-wing politics, left-wing green party, green Australian List of political parties in Australia, political party. As of 2025, the Greens are the third largest politica ...

federal candidate for the electorate of Gippsland. Before that, she was coordinator of SNAICC and director of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency. Marjorie's daughter

Lidia Thorpe Lidia Alma Thorpe (born 18 August 1973) is an Aboriginal Australian ( Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung) independent politician. She has been a senator for Victoria since 2020 and is the first Aboriginal senator from that state. She was ...

became the first

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

woman elected to the

Parliament of Victoria The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria (state), Victoria that follows a Westminster System, Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the Monarchy in Australia, King, represent ...

in 2018, and the first Victorian Aboriginal Senator in 2020.New Greens MP Lidia Thorpe's long road from Nowa Nowa to Northcote
''The Age'', 19 November 2017.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorpe, Alma Living people 1935 births Australian health activists Australian indigenous rights activists Australian women human rights activists