Dick Blair (born Richard Carl Phillips; 1937 – 9 April 2013), also known as Dickie Blair, was an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

professional boxer, Christian pastor, and community leader in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. He became the Australian

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have beg ...

boxing champion in 1972, and was later involved in the Aboriginal Housing Committee in Redfern as well as mentorship of young people in the area.

Early life

Richard Carl Phillips was born in Fingal Head, in the Tweed Coast region of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. He started work as a cane cutter before moving south to

Redfern, Sydney Redfern is an inner southern suburb of Sydney located south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney. Strawberry Hills is a locality on the border with Surry Hills. The area exper ...

, in the late 1960s. During that time there was a new wave of the Aboriginal rights movement, and the

1967 referendum Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

Athletic career

Phillips became known as Dick Blair during his boxing career, and was also referred to as Dickie Blair. His boxing career spanned 12 years, beginning in 1963 and turning

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

in 1964. For some time he trained Tony Mundine. His boxing stance was orthodox. In 1972 he beat Australian middleweight champion Charkey Ramon to earn the title himself. Among others, he fought Trevor Christian, Mick Croucher, Trevor Thornberry, and Jim Brown (Withers). He retired in 1975, having fought 85 bouts, and with a record of 46 wins-31-5.

Activism

He became a

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

with the local

Pentecostal Church Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...

in Redfern, when he was known as Pastor Richard Phillips. He co-founded Koori Lighthouse Youth with his wife Yvonne Phillips. They also set up the Aboriginal Christian Youth Organisation on Holden Street. This included a workshop for training unemployed people, a kitchen, and accommodation for a few homeless children. He lived in Redfern for many years, and continued to be referred to as Dick Blair. In 1973 he was a field officer for South Sydney Community Aid, an Aboriginal advancement group. As a community leader, he was one of the originators of the Redfern Housing Project, which led to the creation of the Aboriginal-run social housing development known as The Block. In April 1973, the federal government under

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from December 1972 to November 1975. To date the longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he was notable for being ...

provided funding for the development of the project. In 1974 Blair provided input to the Aboriginal Housing Committee. Architect Col James was also on the board of South Sydney Community Aid, and got involved in The Block through Blair.

Recognition

In 2007, Phillips was featured in a tribute program on the ''Sweet Science'' weekly national radio show, which was broadcast to over 50 stations on the

National Indigenous Radio Service The National Indigenous Radio Service (NIRS) is a satellite program feed available in Australia to Indigenous and non-Indigenous community radio stations. NIRS provides targeted and specialist programming for and by Australia's Aboriginal and ...

Koori Radio Koori Radio (callsign 2LND), is a community radio station based in Redfern broadcasting to Sydney on a citywide licence. Since the early 1990s it has been part of the Gadigal Information Service (GIS), and is the only radio station in Sydney ...

in Redfern. The program also featured boxing journalist Tony Pritchard-Nobbs, along with former opponents Jim Withers (Brown) and Alan Moore. A photographic portrait of Phillips by

Mervyn Bishop Mervyn Bishop (born July 1945) is an Australian news and documentary photographer. Joining ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' as a cadet in 1962, he was the first Aboriginal Australian to work on a metropolitan daily newspaper and one of the first to ...

was exhibited in the ''Sydney Elders'' exhibition at

The Australian Museum The Australian Museum, originally known as the Colonial Museum or Sydney Museum. is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney, William Street, Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, New South Wales. It is the oldest natural ...

in Sydney in 2012. The exhibition was mounted "to celebrate and share the significant commitment and achievements of local boriginalElders... hocontributed to the important role of culture, education, health, community or social justice". Phillips featured in the 2016 documentary ''Heart of the Fight: The Story of Dick Blair'', directed by Byron Arellano and Mark Taylor and executive produced by Sri Lankan playwright S Shakthidharan with CuriousWorks. CuriousWorks is a

Western Sydney Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US * Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia * Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that ...

community arts organisation established as a start-up "committed to telling diverse community stories" in 2005 by S. Shakthidharan. Phillips' son, Shane Phillips, worked with Taylor on the film. Taylor described Blair and his wife Yvonne as "spiritual leader who "were a pillar of strength for their community through the darkest days of The Block's history.

Personal life and death

Dick and Yvonne Phillips had nine of their own children, and fostered many more. Their son Shane Phillips played for the

Redfern All Blacks The Redfern All Blacks, also known as RABs or Redfern, are an Indigenous Australian semi-professional rugby league club based in Redfern, New South Wales, They are a part of the South Sydney District Junior Rugby Football League. History Redfer ...

, and was a life member since around 1977, later assistant coach. He is also a community elder, and CEO of a

social enterprise A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners. Social enterprises ha ...

for Aboriginal youth called Tribal Warrior. He spent his later life split between the Tweed Heads region and Sydney, a respected elder. He died in Sydney on 9 April 2013, aged 75.

Footnotes

References

External links

Dick Blair
on Boxer List {{DEFAULTSORT:Blair, Dick Indigenous Australian boxers Boxers from Sydney 1939 births 2013 deaths Indigenous Australian activists Australian activists