Perkins had one full sibling and nine other half-siblings by his mother, and was also a cousin of artist and soccer player John Moriarty.

[citation needed] He was the great-uncle of Pat Turner, and inspired her work to improve the lives of and right to self-determination for Indigenous people.

[4] He married Eileen Munchenberg, a descendant of a German Lutheran family, on 23 September 1961 and had two daughters (Hetti and Rachel), and a son (Adam).

[7] There he was treated with kindness, sent to the local school, and met other future Aboriginal leaders and activists, including Gordon Briscoe, John Kundereri Moriarty, Richie Bray, Vince Copley, Malcolm Cooper, and others.

[6][10] In 1965 he was one of the key members of the Freedom Ride – a bus tour through New South Wales by activists protesting discrimination against Aboriginal people in small towns in NSW, Australia.

The Australian Freedom Ride aimed to expose discrepancies in living, education and health conditions among the Aboriginal population.

A local RSL club refused entry to Aboriginal people, including those who were ex-servicemen who participated in the two World Wars.

In response to this action, the riders faced physical opposition from several hundred local white Australians, including community leaders, and were pelted with eggs and tomatoes.

These events were broadcast across Australia, and under pressure from public opinion, the council eventually reversed the ban on Aboriginal swimmers.

The Freedom Ride then moved on, but on the way out they were followed by a line of cars, one of which collided with the rear of their bus, forcing them to return to Moree where they found that the council had reneged on their previous decision.

In the lead-up to the referendum Perkins was manager of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs,[15][16] an organisation that took a key role in advocating a Yes vote.

[19] In 1974 he was suspended on full pay by Barrie Dexter for improper conduct after he called the Liberal–Country Coalition government in Western Australia "biggest racist political parties in this country has ever seen", which came after an earlier altercation with his minister, Labor Senator Jim Cavanagh.

[20] During his year off, funded by a Literature Board grant, he wrote his autobiography, A Bastard Like Me, and was appointed general secretary of the National Aborigines Consultative Committee,[20] returning to the DAA in 1976.

[21][22] Throughout his career he was a strident critic of Australian Government policies on Indigenous affairs and was renowned for his fiery comments.

Hawke once said of Perkins that he "sometimes found it difficult to observe the constraints usually imposed on permanent heads of departments because he had a burning passion for advancing the interests of his people".

After this incident, Perkins left Everton to move to Wigan where he worked as a coal miner at the Mosley Common Colliery alongside Great Britain rugby league player Terry O'Grady.

[36] John Farquharson wrote in his obituary that Perkins "was perhaps not only the most influential Aborigine of modern times, but also must be numbered among the outstanding Australians of the century".

[43] In 2013, Australia Post issued a series of postage stamps featuring five eminent Indigenous rights campaigners, including Perkins, Shirley Smith, Neville Bonner, Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Eddie Mabo.