Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Lingiari for her fine words, for her personal insights and for the affection with which she personally remembers Dr O'Donoghue. That was very special—listening to you. It's with heavy heart that I am also here to pay tribute to Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue, a great leader, an extraordinary woman and a woman who made a difference. As the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, said:

Lowitja's story is the truth of this country.

Lowitja was born in the APY Lands of South Australia to a young Pitjantjatjara mother and an Irish father. At the age of two she was taken from her mother, along with her older sisters Violet and Amy. Two older siblings, Eileen and Geoffrey, had been removed eight years earlier as well. Her name was changed to Lois, and she was not allowed to ask about her family. Lowitja would not see her mother again for three decades, when, in 1967, working as a remote area welfare officer, she had a chance meeting outside a Coober Pedy store with an aunt and uncle who recognised the family resemblance: 'That's Lily's girl.' In the weeks that followed, Lily waited for her daughter in the outback town of Oodnadatta, staring off into the desert, waiting for her daughter to come home. The reunion was not easy. They no longer shared a common language. They did not embrace. They didn't know how to be with one another. Lowitja later said:

By the time I met my mother, of course, it was far too emotional to talk about …

It was at this stage, aged in her 30s, when she learnt her birth name.

The children had been taken to the United Aborigines Mission home, Colebrook children's home, in Quorn in the Flinders Ranges. Nine years later they were transferred to the United Aborigines Mission's new Colebrook Home in Eden Hills in the electorate of Boothby where she attended the local Eden Hills primary school and then Unley Girls Technical High School.

Colebrook children's home was a place of rigid discipline, joyless religious observance, allegedly bad food and endless hymn singing, and praising of the Lord. She felt powerless and unloved and she was often in trouble. She said:

"I remember in my very earliest days standing up for what I believed in … One of the earliest memories I have is of coming between the matron and the strap. I would often stand in the way when the strap was intended for others, with the result being that I, too, got a beating."

She asked herself the unanswerable, painful questions:

… where is my mother, why doesn't she come for me, doesn't she love me?

Despite this, the Colebrook children were encouraged to participate in local community events. Many of the locals I speak to have great memories of their Aboriginal school friends.

Colebrook House in Eden Hills has now been demolished and in its place is Colebrook Reconciliation Park, a beautiful reflective place where we are reminded of the stories of the children taken from their parents many hundreds of kilometres away and raised to be servants, and of the mothers left behind with empty arms.

Despite the circumstances under which Lowitja O'Donoghue came to Eden Hills and her experiences at the children's home, we are proud of having been a little bit of her story and we are sad at the experiences she and the other children had at Colebrook. It's important that these stories, painful as they are, are not forgotten.

Lowitja dedicated her life to improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and she deserves Australia's deepest respect, gratitude and love. Lowitja made a difference. Despite the trauma and disadvantage, she went on to have a stellar career full of many firsts—albeit firsts that shouldn't have had to be firsts. As the member for Lingiari said, she was a trailblazer for Aboriginal women, in particular, and for Aboriginal people generally. She lobbied South Australian Premier Tom Playford to become the first trainee Aboriginal nurse in South Australia, training at Royal Adelaide Hospital, where she rose to become staff sister and charge nurse. She said:

I'd resolved that one of the fights was to actually open the door for Aboriginal women to take up the nursing profession, and also for those young men to get into apprenticeships.

In the 1970s she became the regional director of the then Department Aboriginal Affairs in South Australia, the first woman to hold a position like this in a federal government department. She was appointed the founding chairperson of the restructured National Aboriginal Conference in 1977, and of course she was chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, ATSIC.

She was the first Aboriginal Australian to address the United Nations General Assembly, which she did in 1992 during the launch of the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Peoples; she was involved in the negotiations for native title legislation following the Mabo decision; and former prime minister Kevin Rudd consulted her on the Apology to the Stolen Generations. Notably, she turned down the offer of the position of Governor-General, proudly declaring, 'I'm a republican.'

Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue did not lead an easy life. The circumstances of her childhood and upbringing we would not wish on any child. She had to fight every step of the way to pursue her career. But I pay my respects to a woman who overcame adversity, kept going when obstacles were put in her way and ultimately made a significant difference with the actions of her life. She won many awards: she was Australian of the Year; she had a CBE—Commander of the British Empire; and had many honorary doctorates—she was an honorary professor at Flinders University. But, most importantly, she made a difference. She made a difference to the lives and prospects of Aboriginal Australians. She made a difference to this country and to all Australians. She advanced the cause of reconciliation through her words, through her actions and through her life.

I'd like to offer my condolences to her family and friends, and to the wider First Nations community. Vale, Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue. May she rest in peace.

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