Lowitja O’Donoghue, Aboriginal rights advocate and pioneer who played a pivotal role in Indigenous rights legislation and was the first Aboriginal person to address the United Nations, has died at home in Adelaide, aged 91.
The Yankunytjatjara woman served as the first chairman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in 1990 and later lobbied the Keating government to recognize Aboriginal land ownership through Indigenous Title Laws.
In 1992, Dr. O’Donoghue addressed the UN General Assembly as part of the Year of Indigenous Peoples.
She rose to prominence after becoming the first Aboriginal person to train as a nurse at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1954.
She sought the support of then South Australian Prime Minister Thomas Playford after initially being denied the opportunity due to her Indigenous heritage.
Aboriginal rights campaigner and pioneer Lowitja O’Donoghue (pictured), who played a pivotal role in indigenous property rights legislation and was the first Aboriginal person to address the UN, has died at home in Adelaide at the age of 91.
Dr. Lowitja O’Donoghue (in red outfit) is pictured with fellow Indigenous leaders Professor Marcia Langton, Patrick Dodson, Gatjil Djerrukura and Peter Yu outside Buckingham Palace in London
Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney paid tribute on Sunday to Dr O’Donoghue and her ‘tremendous courage, dignity and grace’.
She said Dr O’Donoghue’s life was shaped by her childhood experiences, including being taken from her mother in remote South Australia as a two-year-old, placed in a mission home and forbidden to have her own to speak language.
“Lowitja’s leadership and tenacity have been an inspiration to generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, including myself,” Ms Burney said.
“She was truly an extraordinary leader. Lowitja was not only a giant for those of us who knew her, but a giant for our country.”
The director of the Colebrook Children’s Home in South Australia, where Dr O’Donoghue grew up, told her she would achieve nothing, according to a statement from Ms Burney’s office.
‘How wrong she was. Dr. O’Donoghue became one of the most influential indigenous women in the country.’
Her niece Deb Edwards said her aunt died peacefully in Adelaide’s Kauma Country on Sunday, with her immediate family by her side.
“Auntie Lowitja dedicated her entire life to the rights, health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,” she said.
“We thank and honor her for all she has done – for all the paths she has created, for all the doors she has opened, for all the problems she has tackled with heart and soul, for all the tables she has sat at and for all the arguments she fought. and won.’
Ms O’Donoghue was named Australian of the Year in 1984.
The non-profit Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation was established in 2022 to continue her legacy.
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Lowitja O’Donoghue (pictured) accepts her Lifetime Achievement Award presented at the NAIDOC Ball in Brisbane, Friday 10 July 2009