Lowitja O'Donoghue AC CBE DSG (1932 - 2024)

Born Aug 1932 in Anangu Pitjantjatjara, South Australia, Australia

Wife of Gordon Plumer Smart — married 1979 in South Australia, Australia

Died 4 Feb 2024 at age 91 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

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Biography

Lowitja O'Donoghue AC CBE DSG is Notable.

Lowitja O'Donoghue was an Indigenous Rights Activist, nurse and public administrator. She was inaugural Chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) from 1990 -1996. Amongst her many honours, she was awarded Companion of the Order of Australia in 1999, and in 2009 was given the NAIDOC Lifetime Achievements Award.

Lowitja (Lois) O'Donogue was born in August 1932 on Granite Downs cattle station [1] in Northern South Australia. Her birth wasn't registered. Her parents were Tom O'Donoghue, an Irish stockman and Lily, an Aboriginal woman with the tribal name Yunamba, a member of the Ananga Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara people Yankunytjatjara people. There is a different version in her official biography, which has that she was born on the De Rose Hill cattle station, which Tom had moved to from Granite Downs station run by his brother Mick in 1923. The Wikipedia article (see Sources) seems to have the correct story.

Lowitja was removed from her mother at the age of two, and sent to be looked after by missionaries, first in Oodnadatta, at the Oodnadatta Childrens' Home and later at Quorn at the Colebrook Home for half-caste children [2]. Missionaries at the latter assigned her the birth date of 1 August 1932.

She had a happy childhood and received a good education both at the Colebrook Home and at the Quorn Primary School. She would change her name back from Lois - given by the Missionaries to Lowitja - but much later in 1994 (see Wikipedia in the Sources). Here is another contradiction in that the introduction to the ... has the following:- 'I am sometimes identified as one of the "success stories" of the policies of removal of Aboriginal children. But for much of my childhood I was deeply unhappy. I feel I had been deprived of love and the ability to love in return. Like Lily, my mother, I felt totally powerless. And I think this is where the seeds of my commitment to human rights and social justice were sown.'^[1].

At age 16, she went into domestic service, then in 1954, became the first Aboriginal person in South Australia to be allowed to train as a nurse.

Only in the 1960s did she discover that her mother was still alive, living in Oodnadatta.

Lowitja worked tirelessly for the Rights of Aboriginal People. She compaigned for a Yes vote in the 1967 referendum and was a member of the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement. During her time as Chairperson of ATSIC, she put the position of ATSIC to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

She married Gordon Smart in 1979. He died in 1991 and is buried at Quorn.^[2]

In 1992, Lowitja was the first Aboriginal Australian to address the United Nations General Assembly, during the launch of the International Year for Indigenous Peoples.

As an acknowledgement of her achievements, she was awarded Honorary Doctorates by Murdoch University, Australian National University and University of South Australia, amongst others.

Since 2007, the Annual Lowitja O'Donoghue Oration held during National Reconciliation Week focuses on aspects of the past and future of Indigenous Australians.

She passed away on 4 February 2024 in Adelaide, in Kaurna country at the age of 91 years.

Sources

1. ↑ https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Lowitja.html?id=DjCWzQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
2. ↑ Lowitja O'Donoghue—Elder of our nation, Women & Politics in South Australia, State Library of South Australia accesed 6 February 2024

• Rintoul, Stuart, 2020, 'Lowitja: The authorised biography of Lowitja O'Donoghue', Allen and Unwin, ISBN 978-1-76087-560-2.
• Wikipedia:Lowitja O'Donoghue
• Wikidata: Item Q6694055, en:Wikipedia
• Memorial: Find a Grave (no image)
  Find A Grave: Memorial #263645492 (accessed 5 February 2024)
  Memorial page for Lowitja O'Donoghue (Aug 1932-4 Feb 2024).