Charles Rowley – a fighter for justice and equality

death in September 1985 left all who had known him and worked with him with a deep sense of loss.Not only were social scientists, both researchers and students, deprived of the opportunity to discuss their work with Charles, knowing that they would receive wise advise and support, but also all concerned with the cause of justice for the dis advantaged were aware that one of the main protagonists had gone.But although the loss is great, Charles has left social science with an invaluable legacy: a lifetime of work which has laid the foundations for changes in policies and attitudes affecting the future of Aborigines in Australia, Papua New Guineans and other indigenous minorities and peoples of the Third World.This provides a sound basis for continuing endeavours in these fields.Charles Dunford Rowley, born in 1906 at Dunedoo, was the eldest son of a mounted policeman who worked for many years in country towns in central New South Wales.Through scholarships he was able to attend high school and, later, the University of Sydney, and eventually to qualify as a secondary school teacher, a profession which he followed for the next ten years.In 1942 he joined the AIF and for four years served with the military Directorate of Research, largely in Papua and New Guinea.That experience left him with a strong interest in and sympathy for the future of Papua New Guineans, particularly in terms of their progress to independence from colonial rule and their achievement of a way of life compatible with their own desires.In 1951 Charles Rowley was appointed Director of the Australian School of Pacific Administration (ASOPA), an institution established to provide young government officers with the education and experience appropriate to the successful implementation of Australian policies in Papua New Guinea.For the next fifteen years he and his colleagues were responsible for the training of these 'kiaps' and their solicitude for the future administration of Papua New Guinea made a clear impact on many of their students.Charles's first book, The Australians in German New Guinea, 1914Guinea, -1921Guinea, (1958)), clearly demonstrates his concern over the impact of Australian policy in Papua New Guinea

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