Under Lowitja O’Donoghue, our greatest leader of the modern era, Indigenous affairs made real progress
I write to send my love and that of our First Peoples of Cape York Peninsula to those who were loved by and who loved our grand lady, Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG, who passed this last Sunday, aged 91.
Her passing ends an extraordinary public life, marked by selfless service and dedication to her people and country. She gave our country everything she had and tutored so many of us in our callow years. She was a leaders’ leader.
She was our greatest leader of the modern era, the finale of which was her chairmanship of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission from its inception to the end of the Keating government in 1996. These were Atsic’s best years. They were years of great coherence in Indigenous affairs, before the national commission’s subsequent poor leadership played into the hands of the Howard government’s antipathy to all things Indigenous.
There were two Atsics, one under Lowitja and the other after. It failed at the national level after Lowitja’s term as chair expired, but it was always a force for good in the regions and communities.
Without Lowitja’s Atsic we would never have defended Eddie Mabo’s great legacy and negotiated the Native Title Act and Indigenous Land Fund.
This was when I met Lowitja and she led the negotiations with the Keating government in the wake of the high court decision on native title. She was the leader. She was the rock around which we gathered.
This was when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had a voice. In our own affairs. To the government. And to the parliament.
The Native Title Act and the Land Fund are testament to the potential of the voice. Without it the country could and would never have responded to Mabo with coherence and justice.
This was possible for two reasons. The government was led by Paul Keating and he opened the doors to the executive government for Indigenous leaders to negotiate. This led to negotiations with the parliament on the native title bill.
The Indigenous side was led by Lowitja, and she had the wherewithal to unite the Indigenous leadership in the process.
Oh, vanished youth! Never again to be chided by this lady when she was cross, and never again to laugh along with her blackfella humour and be showered with her love and kindness.
So much wise counsel did we receive from her throughout our lives. What a privilege it was to have come into the circle of her love when just a young man.
In Cape York between 1990 and 1996 we made hay while the sun shone under her leadership. Point to anything good that we have and that happened in our communities, and you will trace that back to Atsic. So much of the progress we made in those years in building the foundations for progress was possible because of her leadership.
It’s hard for Australians – including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – to understand how much progress we made in those years before 1996. The Howard government made Atsic the whipping boy of its new race and culture wars, and so much propaganda and misrepresentation has clouded the truth. The truth is that across Australia, we were making progress under Lowitja’s leadership. What would whitefellas who know nothing about Indigenous affairs, most of whom have never met a blackfella, know about the truth?
The truth is that we made progress when someone who was a real leader, who had built a lifetime of experience and expertise, led our voice.
The blame cast upon Atsic – which became Australian folklore thanks to the relentless demonising by the new prime minister for years until its abolition – was ruthless and relentless. Yes, the leaders who came after 1996 were not a bootlace on her, but John Howard’s vandalism was central to the racial strategy of his prime ministership: for all of us – but not for them.
Lowitja should have been our 23rd governor general. She had the ballast for that post at that time in our history. Absent the presidency, it would have been fitting and right for her to have taken up the vice-regal role, with strong prescience of our eventual turn to a republic.
Our country is susceptible to showering tokens upon Indigenes to serve some goal of patronage and inclusivity while keeping us out of the main game, but loath to accord to one such as Lowitja – the patron saint of twice as good – recognition of her true merit. Who today would not concede she was twice as worthy as the ill-starred Hollingworth in 2001? This lost opportunity cost the country woe.
To be sure, Lowitja needs no expression of regret about her contribution to public life. Her prodigious accomplishments and place in the firmament of Aboriginal and Australian leadership are undisputed. It is just that the nation still needed her in her last phase of public life.
Notwithstanding this, she was full of grace and fortitude. She was the definition of courage and never lapsed in her principles. Her love and loyalty to our people across the country was boundless.
We owed her an unpayable debt for the sacrifices she made while she lived. Her memory will never be forgotten and her legacy will endure.
Noel Pearson is a director of Cape York Partnership and Good to Great Schools Australia