Speeches of Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue now available online | National Library of Australia (NLA)

Speeches of Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue now available online

Published on 04 Feb 2025

We do not wish to conquer or oppress. Nor indeed do we wish to retaliate for two centuries of injustice. Rather we seek to create a new partnership based upon understanding, cooperation and goodwill. The past cannot be changed; our future is in our hands. We will empower ourselves.

Dr O’Donoghue speaking at the International Launch of the International Year of the World’s Indigenous People in New York, December 1992, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3396359105

The National Library is honoured to care for the personal papers of Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG, one of the Australia's most influential First Nations leaders. Among these papers are the dozens of speeches, addresses and lectures Dr O’Donoghue presented over her long career. Thanks to the support of two generous Patrons, the Library has recently digitised these speeches.

Explore Dr O’Donoghue’s speeches in Trove

About Dr O’Donoghue

Born in De Rose Hill, South Australia, Yankunytjatjara woman, Dr O’Donoghue was removed from her family at the age of two. She was taken to Colebrook Children’s home and brought up under the white education system by the United Aborigines Mission (UAM). Upon leaving Colebrook Home and initially working as a domestic servant, Dr O’Donoghue endured many years of racism and discrimination during her fight to eventually become the first Aboriginal trainee nurse at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1954.  

Dr O’Donoghue continued to work as a nurse thereafter, partly among Aboriginal communities in northern South Australia and for a time in Assam, India. She became a member of the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement in the early 1970s, and later Regional Director of the Adelaide Department of Aboriginal Affairs (1975–76). She was appointed the Founding Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) in 1990. 

Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue sitting in an armchair and smiling

Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue, image by Leanna King, courtesy of the Lowitja Institute

Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue, image by Leanna King, courtesy of the Lowitja Institute

Dr O’Donoghue retired from public life in 2008. Among many honours, Dr O’Donoghue was named Australian of the Year in 1984, was the first Aboriginal woman to be named a member of the Order of Australia in 1977, and a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1999.

Dr O’Donoghue’s speeches

The speeches in this collection reflect Dr O’Donoghue’s role as an advocate for First Nations rights, with a focus on improving health, housing, education and overall welfare outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The speeches come in a range of formats, including handwritten and typed pages, often featuring annotations, prepared by Dr O’Donoghue herself and transcripts created after the speech was given.  

The speeches reveal the intelligence, compassion and courage of a woman who worked tirelessly to enhance national and global understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.  By digitising these speeches, the National Library amplifies her voice and message across time, creating enduring access to the thoughts of one of Australia’s great leaders for future generations.  

Although the speeches were written decades ago in some cases, her insights remain pertinent to the issues of the current day, such as this call for unity in a speech in 2002. 

 

Increasingly, I believe, in a world so divided by politics, religion, nationalism and the pursuit of wealth – that our only hope lies in developing an alternative sense of community connectedness, both locally and globally.

Dr O’Donoghue’s speech for The Seventh Annual Mahatma Gandi Lecture on Nonviolence held at McMaster University, Centre for Peace Studies, 23 October 2002, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3395704913  

A cardboard box full of white paper separated by coloured plastic dividers

Speeches from the Papers of Lowitja O'Donoghue, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-768368352

Speeches from the Papers of Lowitja O'Donoghue, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-768368352

Making them available online

During the process of digitisation the National Library was committed to ensuring the Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property rights of Dr O’Donoghue and her family and community were respected. First Nations people are the primary guardians, interpreters and decisionmakers of their heritage, with deep cultural connections and authoritative values and perspectives.  

The National Library recognised the potential of Dr Donoghue’s speeches to provide deep insights into Australian history, but the digitisation was only possible because of the conversations with and the generous commitment of Dr O’Donoghue and her community to making the speeches more readily available online.  

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