Yankunytjatjara female and Indigenous health leader, Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue will be honoured with a state funeral service on March 8.
The pioneer died on February 4, in Adelaide on Kaurna Country. Her instant household was by her side at the time.
She was 91.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas revealed the state funeral service for Dr O’Donoghue on Tuesday.
“Through her long-lasting work, Dr O’Donoghue has actually made an unbelievable contribution to the improvement of our nation and individuals,” he stated.
[She] leaves a tradition of strong advocacy, enthusiasm and devotion.”
The memorial will happen at St Peter’s Cathedral, on Kaurna Country in North Adelaide.
Dr O’Donoghue belonged to the Stolen Generation, eliminated from her household and required to Colebrook Children’s Home at Quorn.
She started working as a Nanny and was motivated to pursue nursing – nevertheless, due to her Aboriginality, she would be rejected.
She signed up with the Aborigines Advancement League, who were petitioning for the addition of Aboriginal individuals in nursing. This started her long profession in advocacy and advocacy, and her more spakred her enthusiasm for self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals.
Charge sibling at Royal Adelaide Hospital 1959. Credit: Lowitja O’Donoghue Collection
Dr O’Donoghue was the very first Aboriginal individual to train as a nurse at Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1954 and the very first Aboriginal individual to deal with the United Nations in 1992.
She campaigned for an effective referendum in 1967, was a crucial gamer in the advancement of the Native Title Act and encouraged on the National Apology to the Stolen Generation in 2008.
Dr O’Donoghue was made a member of the Order of Australia in 1977, and was called Australian of the Year in 1984.
She was the inaugural chairperson of the National Aboriginal Conference and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in 1990.
The non-profit Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation was established in 2022 to continue her tradition.
‘There will just ever be one Lowitja O’Donoghue’
At the time of her death, Minister for Indigenous Affairs Linda Burney acknowledged Dr O’Donoghue’s “management and persistence”.
She thought it to be an “motivation for generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians” including herself.
“She was a genuinely amazing leader. Lowitja was not simply a giant for those people who understood her, however a giant for our nation,” she stated.
The leader will be kept in mind by her household as not just their “matriarch” however as a female they have “enjoyed and searched for” their whole lives.
“We loved and appreciated her when we were young and have actually matured filled with nonstop pride as she turned into one of the most highly regarded and prominent Aboriginal leaders this nation has actually ever understood,” stated Dr O’Donoghue’s niece Deb Edwards.
Ms Edwards stated her Aunty committed her “life time of work to the rights, health, and health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals”.
“We thank her for being a powerful leader who was never ever scared to listen, speak and act. Constantly with strength, decision, grace, and self-respect,” she stated.
“There will just ever be, one, Lowitja O’Donoghue.
“She who constantly thought that ‘we will conquer sooner or later’.”