A William 'Bill' Ferguson family reunion in Dubbo

The get together was attended by folks from Newcastle, Canberra, Grafton, Kempsey, and the United States. It made for a lively reunion, with some family members meeting for the first time.

"It's been beautiful," Dubbo's Tatum Moore said.

Many family members from Dubbo were at the Dubbo and Districts Football Association gala day because their kids were playing, including Ms Moore's. Other members skipped the reunion because of COVID. Some tested positive at the last minute and did not want to put others at risk.

Megan Waite and her family live in St Louis, Missouri. They travelled for almost 30 hours to come to Dubbo for the family reunion. The last time they visited was in November 2019.

"Very excited to be here, the trip was long, but worth it," she said. "It's been a while... I haven't seen a lot of the aunties, so it's nice to spend some time with them."

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The event began with a Meg Huddleston and Ruth Waite commemorating William Ferguson and his contributions to civil rights in Australia. A cake was also cut to celebrate the reunion.

"Grandfather fought for the rights of Aboriginal people, Chinese people, and everyone else. Regardless of race and religion... he fought for everyone," Ms Huddleston said.

"They were all very good Christian people, and without a lot of the support of the church organisations, they would not have gotten as far as they did."

Ms Huddleston also said with the church backing the 1938 Day of Mourning, Aboriginal Australians had more recognition within white society. She said a lot of Christian values had come through with what her descendants did in history.

Another family member, John Yealland, said the likes of activists William Ferguson, William Cooper, and Jack Patten started political campaigning in the 1930s. He said their activities predated the American and Australian civil rights movements which were said to have started in the 1950s.

"Lot of people have heard of the likes of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X in the [United States], I think what people don't realise is the struggle of Aboriginal people started well before that," he said.

Mr Yealland also mentioned a lesser known fact about Yorta Yorta man William Cooper. Mr Cooper had led a march to the German consulate in Melbourne to protest the treatment of the Jewish people in Germany in 1938.

When the activists travelled from from place to place in those days, they did not have any funding. They passed a hat around to get petrol money to reach the next town. People would feed and help them along the way.

"Just goes to show that, you can. If you've got the passion, you can move forward and do whatever you want," Ms Huddleston said. "Thank you to them that we are all here today."

Ruth Waite, a descendant of Tracker Riley and Ethel Taylor, was born in Lithgow and worked as a librarian.

"Even though you haven't been born here, Aboriginals still have that connection to the country," she said.

She said, in the past, Riley family reunions had been held on Talbragar Mission in Dubbo. Now that she had retired, she wanted to plan more reunions on the reserve.

"When we come in we can all just camp out there, have a fire, a yarn and a sing song," Ms Waite said.

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