WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this story includes images of Indigenous people who have died.
The niece of the late Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG says her family will take time to consider a “very generous” offer of a state funeral for the admired and acclaimed Indigenous leader, who died on Sunday at the age of 91.
Throughout her life, Dr O’Donoghue earned a reputation as a tireless advocate and campaigner for the rights of First Nations people, and eminent Australians have today united in sympathy to pay their respects to the Yankunytjatjara woman and former Australian of the Year.
The SA government has extended an offer of a state funeral for Dr O’Donoghue, whom the ABC has been given permission to name and identify in images.
Dr O’Donoghue’s niece Deb Edwards, who is senior project officer at the Lowitja Institute, fondly described her as an “incredible role model” whose commitment to what she believed in would continue to inspire others.
Ms Edwards said that, despite retiring from public life in 2008, Dr O’Donoghue “never stopped working” and “always wanted to ensure she was present for people”.
“She and I had a very, very deep bond and love,” she said.
“Her empathy for people was incredible — so many people will tell you that — and it certainly taught me how to behave in that regard.
“She was a very, very strong woman, firm in her beliefs, [and] could come across as maybe a little bit too firm at times — however, that was her convictions and her dedication and determination, and all of that has definitely rubbed off on me.”
Ms Edwards said Dr O’Donoghue was a woman of strong Christian faith who “never held any fear around passing away” and the family was now considering the offer of a state funeral.
“It’s a very generous offer, of course, and an honour that she would very, very much appreciate,” she said.
“I will have a conversation with the rest of our family today, and we’ll go a bit further on that.”
A member of the Stolen Generations, Dr O’Donoghue reunited with her mother as an adult — but Ms Edwards said she was profoundly impacted by the experience of being removed from her family.
“She was removed from her mother, she grew up pretty much her entire life without the love of a mother,” she said.
“She never had children, and I think she truly believed she would not be able to mother a child.”
‘The truth of Australia’
Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney paid tribute to Dr O’Donoghue, describing her biography as the “truth of Australia”.
“The nation should know her life story — Irish father, taken away as a very young child, didn’t meet her mother until she was 30 years old, and they had, of course, the language barrier,” she told ABC News Breakfast.
“But as Lowitja said, they were able to talk through their eyes. Her legacy, her story, is a story for now in this country, and we should just have the most incredible outpouring of love, which is happening, and an absolute respect in her memory.
“Her own life story is the story of the truth of Australia.”
Ms Burney said she was personally inspired by the example set by Dr O’Donoghue.
“She was absolutely — a well-used term — a role model. She was the next generation on from me, and many of us young Aboriginal women at the time in the 90s, the 80s, looked at Lowitja and saw possibility,” she said.
“You felt her graciousness, you felt her kindness, but you also felt very much the fact that she could be very stern, and that sternness was always about teaching a lesson.”
‘Hearts at half-mast’
Prominent Indigenous leader Noel Pearson was equally effusive and described Dr O’Donoghue as a “completely selfless” leader and role model to those “determined to pursue the justice and welfare of our people”.
“The hearts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people all over the country [are] at half-mast today. She left an enormous legacy,” Mr Pearson told ABC News Breakfast.
“We owe her such an unrepayable debt, but the message that’s been going through my mind since hearing of this sad news yesterday has been the duty upon all Indigenous people to continue the struggle that she was such a formidable proponent of.
“We must learn from her life, and we must ever be determined to pursue the justice and welfare of our people that she dedicated her entire life to.”
Mr Pearson recalled the advice and counsel Dr O’Donoghue had offered him in the past three decades.
“I would receive a phone message to call Lowitja and she would have something to say to me and a lot of it was laughter, but advice, and she was not afraid to tell me straight as she did with other leaders across the country,” he said.
“I first met her when she was 60 years old — she’d already had an enormous career.
“I, like so many others, learned so much from her.”
South Australian Governor Frances Adamson said she first met Dr O’Donoghue at the United Nations in New York in 1992.
“I was there as a relatively young diplomat and Dr O’Donoghue came and delivered a speech from the podium which really set out [what] life was like, if you like, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia,” Ms Adamson said.
“She was the first Aboriginal person to address the UN.
“It was deeply moving, it was quite shocking but, as with everything she did, it was done with grace.”
Ms Adamson said the best way to honour Dr O’Donoghue was by deeds.
“We often, when someone dies, think about their legacy and what it might be,” she said.
“To me, when we think about Dr O’Donoghue, we will be challenged to continue her work, because there is still a great deal to be done.”