William Charles "Bill" Wentworth was responsible for the establishment of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in 1964, now known as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Wentworth had also taken the first steps in granting of Indigenous land rights, when he proposed giving the Gurindji people control of their land at Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory.

Wentworth was the son of a prominent Sydney barrister, and the great-grandson of William Charles Wentworth, a leading political and literary figure in colonial New South Wales. Wentworth also became a politician, he was a liberal and later an independent member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1949 to 1977.