Seizing the time - Australian Aborigines and the influence of the Black Panther Party, 1969-1972

This article contributes to recent scholarship that has sought to investigate the international influence of the Black Panther Party. It does this by providing a brief narrative outline of the Australian Black Panther Party, formed at the end of 1971 by militant Aboriginal activists. It then suggests, however, that the most enduring influence of the American Black Panther Party in Australia is not the adoption of the American Party's name and program. Instead, it can be seen in the way Aborigines, inspired by the example of the Panthers' community survival programs, developed their own free medical and legal services.