{{Short description|Australian Aboriginal elder and activist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{use Australian English|date=August 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = <!-- defaults to article title when left blank --> | image = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing brackets --> | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = | birth_name = Alma Beryl Brown<ref name="indx">{{cite web |url=https://indigenousx.com.au/i-want-to-be-known-as-a-gundijtmara-activist/ |title="I want to be known as a Gundijtmara activist" |first=Meriki |last=Onus |date=6 May 2021 |website=IndigenousX |access-date=1 August 2022}}</ref> | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1935}}<!-- {{Birth date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|df=y}} for living people supply only the year with {{Birth year and age|YYYY}} unless the exact date is already widely published, as per WP:DOB. For people who have died, use {{Birth date|YYYY|MM|DD|df=y}}. --> | birth_place = | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD|df=y}} (DEATH date then BIRTH date) --> | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Aboriginal elder and activist | years_active = | known_for = co-founded the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service | notable_works = | relatives = Lidia Thorpe (granddaughter) }} '''Alma Beryl Thorpe''' (born 1935) is an Australian Aboriginal elder and activist. In 1973, she co-founded the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS), together with her mother, Edna Brown, and Bruce McGuinness.

==Early life and education== Thorpe was born in Melbourne during the Great Depression in Australia in 1935, and her family lived in the suburb of Fitzroy.<ref name=firstpeoples>{{Cite web | url=https://www.firstpeoplesrelations.vic.gov.au/alma-thorpe| title=Alma Thorpe|website= First Peoples - State Relations |publisher= Victorian Government| date=29 September 2019 | access-date= 1 August 2022}}</ref> Her mother was Edna Brown,<ref name=edna>{{Cite web | url=https://www.firstpeoplesrelations.vic.gov.au/edna-brown| title=Edna Brown|website= First Peoples - State Relations |publisher= Victorian Government | access-date= 1 August 2022}}</ref> who, after being forced off the Framlingham Aboriginal Reserve 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 graves.<ref name=latimore2022>{{cite web | last=Latimore | first=Jack | title='Shouty, uninformed, ineffective': How Senator Lidia Thorpe annoys the establishment | website=The Sydney Morning Herald | date=23 April 2022 | url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/shouty-uninformed-ineffective-how-senator-lidia-thorpe-annoys-the-establishment-20220323-p5a73j.html | access-date=2 August 2022}}</ref> Her father, James Brown, was a second-generation Scottish-Australian who worked for Victorian Railways and was a communist involved in the labour movement.<ref name="indx" />

Thorpe left school at the age of 12 and worked in a shoe factory, and at 18 married and moved to the town of Yallourn.<ref name=firstpeoples/>

In the 1960s, Thorpe separated from her husband and returned to Melbourne, along with her children, and began work as a barmaid.<ref name=firstpeoples/>

==Achievements== Inspired by her mother, Edna, Thorpe joined community leaders such as Geraldine Briggs and Margaret Tucker in protests for Aboriginal rights.<ref name=firstpeoples/> In 1972, she was involved in setting up the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.<ref name=latimore2022/>

In 1973, together with her mother<ref name=edna/> and co-founder Bruce McGuinness,<ref name=firstpeoples/> she helped to establish the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS) to help the Aboriginal community with their health and wellbeing.<ref name=2011_Vic_AHR>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vic.gov.au/aboriginalvictoria/community-engagement/leadership-programs/aboriginal-honour-roll/2011-victorian-aboriginal-honour-roll/alma-thorpe.html|title=2011 Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll - Alma Thorpe|date=2012|publisher=State Government of Victoria|access-date=2017-12-06| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322223755/https://www.vic.gov.au/aboriginalvictoria/community-engagement/leadership-programs/aboriginal-honour-roll/2011-victorian-aboriginal-honour-roll/alma-thorpe.html| archive-date=22 March 2018}}</ref> 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.<ref name=indx /> According to McGuinness, "Without Alma Thorpe there wouldn't have been a health service".<ref name=firstpeoples/>

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).<ref name=2011_Vic_AHR /><ref name=firstpeoples/>

==Current positions== {{as of| 2019}}, she is Elder in Residence at the Institute of Koorie Education at Deakin University and continues her work with MAYSAR.<ref name=firstpeoples/><ref name=2011_Vic_AHR />

==Recognition== For all of her hard work in the Aboriginal community she was made a lifetime member of the Aborigines Advancement League.<ref name=2011_Vic_AHR />

==Personal life and family== Thorpe had seven children with her husband and later fostered two more on her own.<ref name=firstpeoples/>

Her daughter Marjorie Thorpe was a commissioner on the Stolen Generations inquiry that produced the ''Bringing Them Home'' report, and later a member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, and a preselected Australian Greens federal candidate for the electorate of Gippsland.<ref name=latimore2022/> Before that, she was coordinator of SNAICC and director of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency.<ref>{{cite web | title=Thorpe, Marjorie | website=AWR | date=14 September 2023 | url=https://www.womenaustralia.info/entries/thorpe-marjorie/ | access-date=11 August 2024}}</ref>

Marjorie's daughter Lidia Thorpe became the first Indigenous woman elected to the Parliament of Victoria in 2018, and the first Victorian Aboriginal Senator in 2020.<ref>[http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/new-greens-mp-lidia-thorpes-long-road-from-nowa-nowa-to-northcote-20171119-gzodm6.html New Greens MP Lidia Thorpe's long road from Nowa Nowa to Northcote], ''The Age'', 19 November 2017.</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{cite web | title=Alma Thorpe | website=Her Place Women's Museum | url=https://herplacemuseum.com/biographies/alma-thorpe/}} *{{cite web | title=Thorpe, Alma | website=The Australian Women's Register | date=18 September 2018 | url=http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE6395b.htm| first=Alannah| last= Croom }} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorpe, Alma}} Category:Living people Category:1935 births Category:Australian health activists Category:Australian Indigenous rights activists Category:Australian women human rights activists