Joseph Croft (c. 1926–1996), Aboriginal activist, was a Gurindji/Mudpurra man from the Northern Territory and member of the Stolen Generations. Removed from his family when he was eighteen months old, he spent his childhood in government institutions. In 1944, he became the first Aboriginal person to attend an Australian university, studying engineering at the University of Queensland. After working as a contracting surveyor on dam building and railway line rebuilding projects from 1950 until 1971, Croft was appointed as a cultural adviser in the Federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs from the mid-1970s. He also served on the Anti-Discrimination Board. Croft remained active in advocating Indigenous rights throughout his life. The Joseph and Lindsay Croft Memorial Scholarship at the Australian National University in Canberra was established by Joseph's daughter Brenda L. Croft and son Timothy in 2000 to honour the memory of their late father Joseph and brother Lindsay, who tragically died in a car accident.
