Dr O’Donoghue’s niece, Deb Edwards, released a statement on behalf of the family, describing her aunt as a “formidable leader who was never afraid to listen, speak and act.”

“Our Aunty and Nana was the matriarch of our family, whom we have loved and looked up to our entire lives. We adored and admired her when we were young and have grown up full of never-ending pride as she became one of the most respected and influential Aboriginal leaders this country has ever known.”

“Aunty Lowitja dedicated her entire lifetime of work to the rights, health, and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We thank and honour her for all that she has done – for all the pathways she created, for all the doors she opened, for all the issues she tackled head-on, for all the tables she sat at and for all the arguments she fought and won.”

On Sunday, her family gave permission for Dr O’Donoghue’s name and image to be used.

Australian Indigenous rights activist and former politician Patrick Dodson described Dr O’Donoghue as an “extraordinary person of great courage and strength.”

“[It’s] a sad day for First peoples of this Nation,” Dodson said in a statement. “Her leadership in the battle for justice was legendary. Hers was a strong voice, and her intelligent navigation for our rightful place in a resistant society resulted in many of the privileges we enjoy today.”

“She will be forever remembered in our hearts.”

Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney called Dr O’Donoghue a “fearless and passionate advocate” who “dedicated her life to improving the lives of Indigenous Australians and deserves our deepest respect and gratitude.” 

“Australia mourns the passing of Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue and it is with great sadness and love that I pay tribute to her remarkable legacy,” she said.

“Throughout her career in public life, Dr O’Donoghue displayed enormous courage, dignity and grace. She was a truly extraordinary leader. Lowitja was not just a giant for those of us who knew her, but a giant for our country.”

Indigenous leader Noel Pearson described Dr O’Donoghue as Australia’s “greatest leader of the modern era”.

“She was full of grace and fortitude,” he said in a statement. “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 unrepayable debt for the sacrifices she made while she lived. Her memory will never be forgotten and her legacy will endure. Her passing … ends an extraordinary public life, marked by unstinting service and dedication to her people and country.” 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joined in the chorus of tributes, describing Dr O’Donoghue as “one of the most remarkable leaders this country has ever known”.

“As we mourn her passing, we give thanks for the better Australia she helped make possible,” he said in a statement, posted on X.

“Dr O’Donoghue had an abiding faith in the possibility of a more united and reconciled Australia. It was a faith she embodied with her own unceasing efforts to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and to bring about meaningful and lasting reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia.”

On Sunday, South Australian Attorney-General Kyam Maher wrote a tribute on his Facebook page, extending his sympathies to Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue’s family, friends, and associates.

“In honouring Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue’s memory, may we be inspired by the countless positive changes she contributed over her life,” he wrote. “We recognise the profound impact she had on the country and the many lives she touched. Her legacy will forever stand as a testament to the influence of her relentless dedication and service.”

“Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue’s leadership was not just about strength and determination; she led with a presence that inspired others to rise. Her legacy as a leader of both conviction and compassion will continue to inspire generations to come.”

Maher added that at an “appropriate moment” he will reach out to Dr O’Donoghue’s  family “with the offer of a State Funeral, in recognition of [her] incredible service.”

Background

She was born in 1932 on Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands at Granite Downs station (Indulkana) in South Australia. She was the fifth child of Lily, a Anangu Yankunytjatjara woman, and Tom, a first-generation Irishman. 

She was assigned a birthdate of August 1st by missionaries. At age 2, she was removed from her family by South Australia’s Aboriginal Protection Board and taken to Colebrook Home for Half-Caste Children — an institution that was a “crowded house, full of children taken from their parents and told to forget”, according to Dr O’Donoghue’s official biographer, Stuart Rintoul. 

It would be another 30 years before she saw her mother again. She never made contact with her father again.

In 2020, for Rintoul’s official biography of her, Lowitja: The authorised biography of Lowitja O’Donoghue, Dr O’Dononghue reflected on her earliest days of standing up for what she believed in: “One of the earliest memories I have is of coming between the matron and the strap. I would often stand in the way when the strap was intended for others, with the result being that I, too, got a beating.”

Like most Aboriginal children during the time, O’Dononghue was raised to be a servant. She received a secondary education before being sent to work at a sheep station and “told she would soon fall pregnant and amount to nothing.”

By age 16, she was working as a domestic servant in Victor Harbour hospital in South Australia, before being given the role of a nursing aide. But she yearned to do more with her life. 

“I decided that I wanted to be ‘somebody’,” she told Rintoul. “That God had given me intelligence and that I was going to use it.”

She fought to undertake training to become a nurse, after being refused to attend Royal Adelaide Hospital because of her Aboriginality.

In a 1994 interview with National Film and Sound Archive, she described the incident: “The matron … stood me up in the corridor outside her office and just told me very bluntly that I should go to Alice Springs and nurse my own people.”

“Alice Springs of course being a place I had never been to and ‘my own people’ being a people that I didn’t know. So of course that really hurt me, but I didn’t give up.”

Garnering support from then-premier of SA, Sir Thomas Playford, she became the first Aboriginal nurse trainee at the Royal Adelaide hospital, before going on to become one of the first Aboriginal nurses in the country in 1959. 

She experienced racial discrimination from patients, remembering one who told her “Don’t put your black hands on me.” She would continue to work as a nurse for the next ten years. 

Her achievements

In 1962, Dr O’Donoghue travelled to India as a nurse with the Baptist Overseas Mission. On the eve of the 1967 referendum, she joined the South Australian branch of the Federal Office of Aboriginal Affairs as a public servant, campaigning for the recognition of Aboriginal peoples in the census. 

Rising through the ranks in the public service for the next decade, Dr O’Donoghue became the first Aboriginal woman to be named a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1976. The following year, she was the founding chair of the National Aboriginal Conference (NAC), a short-lived Fraser Government initiative that gave a platform for Aboriginal people to express their views. 

In 1984, she was recognised for her work to improve the welfare of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and named Australian of the Year. 

By 1990, she was the inaugural Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander Commission. At the time, the commission was the country’s most explicitly concerted initiative to give institutional structure to Aboriginal self-determination.

Dr O’Donoghue would lead the organisation for the next six years. In 1992, after the Mabo decision, she worked as a lead negotiator on the Native Title Act, working alongside key figures including then-prime minister Paul Keating, Noel Pearson and Marcia Langton to give justice for Aboriginal people and a “workable and fair system of land management” in the country. 

In the same year, she became the first Aboriginal person to address the UN general assembly, delivering an opening address at the United Nations International Year of Indigenous People. 

In 1999, she was awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia for her commitment to public service and leadership in Indigenous affairs. In 2005 was honoured with a papal award, becoming Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great.

In 2010, The Lowitja Institute in Melbourne was named in her honour. The institute is dedicated to improving Indigenous health outcomes and supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations to lead research projects that advance the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Her legacy will also continue through the Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation, which provides opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to advance equality, empowerment, voice and action, and the annual Lowitja O’Donoghue Orations at the University of Adelaide.

Photo Credit: Name and photo used with permission of Lowitja’s family. Photo by Leanne King

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Muriel Wymarra, who was born and raised in Gimuy (Cairns), joins a remarkably diverse all-female board at AASW, becoming the fourth woman on the board with a First Nations background and the first of Torres Strait Islander culture.

Linda Ford, the National President of AASW, said the appointment of Wymarra is a major step in representing the diversity of First Nations cultures in Australia within the organisation.

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are often identified jointly without acknowledging their unique cultural differences,” Ford said. “The AASW Board has recognised that we must value and promote both First Nations. 

“Muriel Wymarra’s appointment represents a significant milestone for the AASW board. Her wealth of experience and dedication to advocating for the Torres Strait Islander community aligns seamlessly with our inclusivity and cultural integrity mission.”

Wymarra has had an impressive career, amplifying the voices of Australia’s First Nations peoples in every role she has held.

Wymarra has worked in federal government administration, as well as not-for-profit organisations, and has served as the National Indigenous Social Work Group (NISWG) chairperson in Services Australia. She also provides counselling support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and is now pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy at Central Queensland University. Her research focuses on professional helping in Torres Strait culture.

Wymarra is looking forward to starting her new role as a Board Director at AASW.

“This is an exciting opportunity for a Torres Strait Islander social work practitioner to represent and amplify the rich diversity of Australia’s culture,” she said.

The Australian Association of Social Workers is the professional body for social workers around the country, supporting social workers and setting standards for education and practice within the industry.

Diversity of board directors in Australia is improving overtime. According to research from Watermark Search International and the Governance Institute of Australia, the percentage of women board directors on the ASX 300 list rose from 20 per cent in 2016 to 35 per cent in 2022.

However, most board directors in Australia still come from Anglo/European backgrounds, with just four per cent of board directors on the ASX 300 list Indigenous Australians.

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Cox, the state’s first female Indigenous senator, told a public hearing in Perth on Wednesday that their refusal is “a complete disregard for the trauma that they have experienced.” 

“Our job today was to encourage government departments and in particular WA Police to come with answers about how they’d improved their systems,” Cox said. “So to not have police turn up is a complete slap in the face to families.”

“First Nations justice can never be achieved in this country if people are not accountable, if our law enforcement agencies across this country are not transparent in their transactions in our communities.”

Cox criticised the state’s Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) review, which investigated the police response to a case in 2013, where Yamatji woman Tamica Mullaley was arrested after she was violently assaulted by her ex-partner. 

Instead of being treated for her life-threatening injuries as a victim of violence, Mullaley and her father, who had arrived to help his daughter, were both arrested by the state police. 

During her detainment in police custody in hospital, Mullaley’s ex abducted their 10-month old son and murdered him.

The CCC review ruled there was no serious misconduct and failed to conduct a full investigation. In June last year, Western Australia’s attorney-general John Quigley apologised to Mullaley and her father and pardoned them on behalf of the state government.

“On behalf of the government of Western Australia, I am sorry for the way you were treated by the government and the WA police both before and after losing baby Charlie,” Quigley said.

“Ted and Tamica deserved compassion. Instead, the system we thought we could rely on to support victims of crime failed Tamica and Ted and they were dragged through the courts themselves.”

In April this year, Mullaley shared her story at the Senate inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children, describing the occasion as healing. 

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On Wednesday in Perth, Cox praised Mullaley’s actions as inspirational. 

“For her to come to the committee and to share her story with us was an act of bravery and she inspired so many other people to come forward and to talk to us,” Cox said.

The former WA police officer also used the opportunity to denounce the police’s decision to not attend the inquiry. 

“It really screams to me that there’s a lack of respect that somehow we are still making victims responsible in this state for what has happened to them – and that is not OK,” she said, adding that Police Minister Paul Papalia has the power to urge police officers to attend.

“That is the responsibility of the system and the systems we all govern and that we, from a parliamentary point of view, legislate.”

“I’m urging people to work with us in partnership so that we can ensure that we look at this issue so we can prevent deaths of First Nations women and children in this country.”

A spokesperson for the state government said that WA police have made submissions to assist the Senate inquiry, adding that Papalia had not compelled members of the force to attend the inquiry since that would not be “appropriate with the existing separation of powers.” 

After her testimonial in April this year, Mullaley told Guardian Australia that her baby son would “still be here if [the police] did their job right.”

“If my family were white, there would have been more care, more help,” she said.

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“My advocacy started with my own healing,” Donohue tells Women’s Agenda’s on the It Takes Boobs podcast, a conversations initiative in partnership with Stella Insurance.

A proud Aboriginal woman from the Dunghutti nation, Donohue was born and raised in Kempsey, NSW. She’s an author, educator and advocate for topics specifically surrounding anti-violence, anti- racism and Aboriginal women and has created a platform to share lived experiences, as well as a safe place for many Aboriginal women.  

Currently, Donohue is the CEO of Mudgin-Gal Aboriginal Women’s Centre, sits on the City of Sydney’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory panel and DVNSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Committee. 

When it comes to domestic violence situations, Donohue is clear on where her line is drawn, and this, she says, is key. 

“I’ve shown that by supporting my son’s ex-partner,” she says. “I supported her. He’s my son, but I’m not going to move the line of where I stand.”

“My line is drawn and it’s drawn deeply and firmly and I will not move it for anyone. Not even my own child. And I think that’s the issue in this space– until it happens to you or you know somebody involved in domestic violence, everyone will say ‘I’ve got zero tolerance to violence’, until they have to deal with it and then that line moves.”

“And we can’t do that. We have to end staunchly and it has to start with us.”

Donohue adamantly believes everyone has the capacity to draw the line against domestic violence and have zero tolerance for it. She also says it’s men who really need to take the lead on this issue, as they are the main perpetrators of violence against women.

“Domestic violence– you know, it’s everyone’s business but men have to really take the lead role in reducing or eliminating violence because the majority of perpetrators are men. It has to come from the top down,” says Donohue.

While men are the main perpetrators, it’s Aboriginal women who fare the worst when it comes to violence. They’re 34 times more likely to become victims of violence than white women.

Having worked in the anti-violence space for over 20 years now, Donohue says the answer to stomping out this violence is through prevention– part of which includes recognition that Australia was built on violence and deception against Aboriginal women during colonisation . 

“We start by telling the truth about the beginning of Australia- that it’s a racist system,” she says.

“Doesn’t matter how rich you are or what god you worship, it happens in every single town and city in Australia– in the world– but in Australia, Aboriginal women, who are less than 2 per cent of the population, sit in the highest percentage of all things violence.”

“It’s systems, it’s organisations in place that are violent and racist towards Aboriginal women because they don’t treat Aboriginal women equal in this country.”

Far too often, women’s stories of resilience and leadership go untold. And we know that so often, it’s women at the forefront of the brave push for progress. With this new Women’s Agenda podcast series, ‘It Takes Boobs’, supported by Stella Insurance, we’re challenging the typical sexist trope of it “taking balls” to get big things done.

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The Ember Connect platform aims to elevate the lives of members through professional and personal development, connection, healing and culture. Its community provides a safe and supportive space for Indigenous women and allies to share stories, experiences and resources. 

A proud Wiradjuri woman, Dr Heckenberg has spent her noteworthy academic career supporting First Nations people. 

“I struggled a lot in early education and didn’t finish high school, however, I had strong women around me who’s positive impact allowed me to gain my PhD and become successful in my chosen field,” she said.

“I don’t think this kind of impact can be understated for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. Our women are phenomenal and sometimes society lags in its recognition of the talents we have.”

Dr Heckenberg is the Academic Director (Aboriginal Engagement) at the University of Tasmania, the President of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Consortium and sits on the Universities Accord Ministerial Reference Group and the Australian Research Council’s College of Experts.

Now on the Board of Directors at Ember Connect, Dr Eckenberg says the platform “helps us reach more women using technology they are already familiar with.”

“It gives support to those who haven’t had it before, creating a bigger impact across the country.”

Concurrently with welcoming Dr Eckenberg to the Board, the organisation reached a major milestone of 1000 members and 500 allies (non-Indigenous women in its digital community). 

The Ember Connect community is open to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and allies, regardless of their location or background. 

In May, the platform will be launching a structured mentoring program to provide members with access to a group of passionate mentors. 

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Across Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are vastly over-represented in child protection services. The research found that these current systems are often disciplinary in approach and create further harm for young people. 

The report, You Can’t Pour from an Empty Cup, is an initiative by Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak (QATSICPP) in partnership with ANROWS and Australian Catholic University (ACU).

One community researcher said that current child protection systems fail to respond in healing-focused ways that recognise and respond to the unique trauma that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children experience.  

As the first of its kind in Australia, the research project engaged 8 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community research teams across regional and remote Queensland. 

It was led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander chief investigators in a collaborative process to elevate First Nations voices and find community-led solutions for healing and recovery.  

Results showed First Nations people have been left out of decision-making, with devastating consequences. This has led to the creation of the Healing our children and young people framework, a culturally safe, place-based, trauma-aware, healing informed, children-centred approach to engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children experiencing family and domestic violence.

CEO of ANROWS, Padma Raman PSM, encouraged policymakers and practitioners across the service system to consider the findings and urgently adopt the report’s framework. 

“Existing approaches and systems are causing significant harm to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who have experienced domestic and family violence,” said Raman.

“The proposed community-led framework, the first of its kind in Australia, is an exceptional tool for anyone in the child protection and domestic and family violence space.”

According to the community researcher, some youth justice programs have also been “lacking cultural capability and missing the opportunity to address underlying causes.”

“They think they know what they’re doing for our kids, but they don’t have any healing component,” said the community researcher. “They aren’t run by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”

CEO of QATSCIPP, Garth Morgan added to calls for the frameworks use, saying it “values culture as strength and recognises that our communities not only hold the solutions to healing our children but their connections to culture and country is vital in leading this response.”

Alongside the framework, the report provides a series of recommendations and solutions, including increased investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, access to housing and brokerage funds and investment in cultural competency and DFV awareness across systems.

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The five-day summit runs every two years and aims to support First Nations women in gaining valuable insights into political processes, while also build on their skills to create positive change in their communities. 

Due to Covid-19, the summit had a three year hiatus, but was back in full swing this year to provide networking opportunities and useful resources for those invited to attend.

It was an especially significant event given the record 11 First Nations MPs in Parliament elected this year and Linda Burney’s appointment as the first Aboriginal woman appointed as Minister for Indigenous Australians.

Attendees were able to sit down with Parliamentarians, develop more tools to engage with the political system and establish strong relationships. 

“Straight Talk supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to amplify their voices and realise their right to self-determination– ensuring that they have a seat at the table to make decisions about the things that directly affect their lives and communities,” says Executive Lead of Oxfam’s First Peoples Program and proud Wamba Wamba, Yorta Yorta, Dhudhuroa and Dja Dja Wurrung woman Ngarra Murray.

This year, the attendees represented women from many different nations and language groups, ranging in ages from 20s up to 60s. 

The summit’s official opening ceremony was hosted at Parliament House by the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Linda Burney.

During the five days, Kuka Yulanji woman and 2015 NAIDOC Scholar of the Year, Michelle Deshong, led attendees in small group meetings with politicians and helped them engage in a mock Senate committee. 

Yamatji-Noongar woman and WA Senator Dorinda Cox, and Senate President Sue Lines, spoke at the summit, while special guest speaker, Karen Diver, also spoke, sharing her experiences as US President Barack Obama’s Special Assistant to the President for Native American Affairs. 

Cox said Straight Talk is not only beneficial for the attendees but also for the MPs they meet with.

“Straight Talk provides an important opportunity for us as politicians to understand what some of the barriers and the challenges are for First Nations women participating in politics and how, from a grassroots democracy perspective, we can engage better.”

Since it began in 2009, the Straight Talk summit has hosted more than 950 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and many have gone on to create positive change within their communities and beyond. 

Program facilitator, Michelle Deshong, has been with Straight Talk since its beginning and says that, originally, they were trying to encourage more Indigenous women to step into political spaces.

“I think a lot of the time people are trying to enact change, but sometimes they don’t know where the right place is to start or who the right people are in terms of the decision makers they need to be talking to.”

Throughout the years, Straight Talk has seen many women put the insights they’ve gained at the summit into practice in their communities by running for political office and local government. 

Many are already strong advocates in their community politics and the conference allows them to add to this activism by learning more powerful strategies from other First Nations women.   

“I know that I have a strong voice but let me tell you, there were some women there that had much stronger voices than me,” says one of the attendees, Kaurna and Arabunna woman, Janette Milera. 

“I am seriously looking at how I can move from the community activist […] to a much stronger voice and a more powerful voice that will actually help make change.”

Another attendee, Ngarrindjeri woman Shaylem Wilson sees the summit as a valuable way to receive guidance from women who’ve overcome similar struggles to getting into politics.

“As a young First Nations woman, I feel honoured that other women from across the country shared their knowledge, strength and power.”

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It is now February 2022 and she has already hit that target by 100%.

“Permanent employment is important to me because anything less than equates to insecure employment and insecure livelihood,” she said. “Whilst many have adopted nomadic ways of working like professional freelancing, this is only viable with those who have security. Temporary visa holders are over represented in unpaid, under-qualified or insecure work and they are forced into this work as there is no other option.”

“Without secure employment there are structural barriers like the inability to access a home loan, despite this being one the major ways in which the average person accumulates wealth. We need to achieve more than just getting a foot in the door, we need to be moving them into secure work, we need to be moving them upwards.”

Ashraf, who took home the WALA for Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year in 2021, also announced she and her team were putting the final touches into a program supported by the Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship Grant from the The Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources.

The program, called ‘Anyone Can’, would be the first program dedicated to empower the growth of the Women Of Colour innovation ecosystem, including WoC founders and STEM professionals, engaging 100 Women of Colour into the ecosystem.

This month, ‘Anyone Can’ has finally gone live with an exciting launch event taking place on 24 March 2022 in Melbourne. Attendee and Pay It Forward tickets can be purchased here.

For any current or aspiring startup founders or STEM professionals who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Women, Black Women and/or Women of Colour, this program will provide a psychologically safe space to demystify the ins and outs of the startup ecosystem and normalise the access and advancement of BIWOC in this high-promise sector, which has traditionally been dominated by white men.

To mark the occasion, we sat down with the extraordinary creator and mentor to learn her insights in entrepreneurship, women in tech, and the importance of standing up for yourself.

You started your company in September 2020. How has it been since then? In the role of director, what are your day to day tasks?

Since starting The Creative Co-Operative in 2020 it’s been nothing short of a roller-coaster ride. No two days have been the same and it’s really been an exploration of how hard we as a team can push ourselves to achieve the impact that we have articulated as our goals – $700 million into the pockets of BIWOC if we want to make a dent at fighting intergenerational financial inequity. This is an urgent mission and it cannot wait. This has meant that there’s been a lot of pressure we put on ourselves to hit milestones by a certain deadline, but I believe that by being really specific about what we needed to get done, and by when, it’s allowed us to achieve an immense amount of impact in an incredibly short amount of time. It has not been easy yet even then I’m aware that our existing access to and knowledge of the start-up ecosystem is what enabled us to get this far.

Our first win was at a Victoria University pre-accelerator program called BETA. We took home the Action Award of $2,000, which covered our initial set up costs like ABN registration and insurance. From there, we went to pitch at another startup competition, The Future Founders Festival. We won a prize of $1,000, which paid for our website.

We started from these extremely humble beginnings, including our first client project for $500. They loved our work and strongly endorsed us.  We follow the 80/20 rule by focussing on delivering an exceptional client service – 80% of our work comes from 20% of our client base. As a result of our deep level of care which translates to exceeding client expectations, we’ve quickly grown a trusted reputation and largely picked up work through word of mouth referrals.

From that first project, we grew the confidence to then pitch for a $50,000 project, and despite competing against over 20 other established agencies, we won. We’re about to hit 18 months and we have already doubled last year’s number of transactions. By month 12 we had already created >200 financial transactions and opportunities for other WoC.

It is interesting talking about our challenges in the context of our wins because we don’t actually start at the same starting line as everybody else. This is because of our diverse set of intersecting identities. We’re not just women. We’re Women of Colour. Amongst us there are additional intersections beyond race. For example, some of us may not be first language English speakers. Some of us are citizens, but some of us are temporary visa holders. Some of us are (myself included) live with PTSD. The greater the number and types of intersections, the further one stands from the starting line.

When we’re 5 to 10 steps behind the starting line, that’s extra work we have to perform. Extra effort towards reversing biases held by decision makers to convince them they should believe in us, invest in us. I speak about my own experiences as a migrant Woman of Colour but compared to the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, to Black Women, I am privileged.

The other challenge of being a first generation migrapreneur or a migrant entrepreneur is the lack of established networks and in startup land – your network is your currency. It’s what either opens or closes doors. If you don’t have a network, you have to figure out how to build one.

Something we don’t talk about is the level of privilege you actually have if you’re able to take the risk of becoming an entrepreneur. It’s a path that is only really accessible to those who have a fallback in case their startup fails, particularly those who possess inter-generational wealth or alternative access to funds whether that is savings, a partner or access to welfare.

Finally, whilst I have the privilege of being a first language English speaker, I don’t come from a business family nor intergenerational wealth so there’s a lot I’ve had to figure out along the way. In addition, starting in the middle of a global pandemic has been an extremely humbling experience.

In the role of director, what are your day to day tasks?

At this early stage of creating a social enterprise / startup, my role might say Director but really my role involves literally everything. It involves sales & strategy as much as it does licking postage stamps.

In short, my day-to-day tasks constantly change, though we’re starting to arrive at a point where we’re reaching more of a structure. I’m very proud we have grown to the point that we’ve been able to hire some amazing colleagues to further propel our growth.

As a result, I’m now able to start focusing on the things that a Director should be focusing on, namely more strategy and revenue generation and less execution.

Why did you start CCO ? What were you hoping to achieve?

I started The CCO because of my personal experience of systemic racism. However it was down a path beaten before me and whom I learnt so much from – incredible Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander women and Black Women, some of the first to challenge and dismantle forces of oppression, something many of us benefit from today in different ways – the likes of Aunty Gladys Elphick, Aunty Pearl Gibbs, Auntie Joyce Clague here or Angelia Davis, Harriet Tubman or Madam CJ Walker in the US.

Like many, for me, George Floyd’s murder was a serious wake up call. It wasn’t that systemic racism hadn’t been around for hundreds of years. It was that in the context of the world standing still during COVID-19, the world had the space to absorb what had happened. 

At the time I was still applying for jobs during COVID-19 and kept getting knocked back. Yet I saw peers who I previously worked with (who I had to actively manage to ensure they met their deadlines) were successfully getting hired at the same places I was getting knocked back. What other difference did we have than our race, gender, and how white our name sounded?

I decided I was going to stop wasting my time applying for jobs with organisations that were biased against me and refused to see my value. I knew what I could achieve. I’d built a successful track record doing it for other companies. So I decided to finally invest my talent in myself instead and others like me. I started applying all of that energy and focus to create the environment I wanted to work in and the type of work I wanted to perform. And that is exactly what the CCO represents a mere 15 months later.

I think society’s current Ways of Working are deeply flawed. Everything comes down to a race to the bottom. Who can deliver the work for the cheapest amount of money? Typically, those with no other options like temporary visa holders. This is a prime example of how systemic racism is perpetuated.

What if we built organisations that were in a race to the top? Examined what the individual wanted to achieve, aligned their work to what they cared about, then aligned the organisation’s goals in that direction? What if we actually built an organisation that existed to serve its employees as opposed to the other way around?

It’s not a What If. That is what The CCO is currently doing. We want – demand – better for ourselves, for our communities. Its what the team cares about. Its what the team is good at. We’ve validated we know how to rapidly start, launch and scale a successful enterprise and we’re not the only ones – if other BIWOC can access the starting line, they can too and we are privileged if we can be a part of making that happen.

What is the most difficult thing about being someone in a leadership position who is not white and not male in Australia?

For anyone who is BIWOC and considering leadership and entrepreneurship – you may already know or you may not – you’re going to face fare more barriers and you’re going to have to work a lot harder than your peers to get to the same place (if that) – but what you do know is that for better or worse, resilience is in your DNA and if you can harness it, you will get there.

I’m walking in knowing this, completely aware of what my barriers are. Or so I thought I was. It meant that for me, when I show up to a meeting, I don’t get the benefit of the doubt. I have to make a really compelling case each time I am pitching to a new client or potential funder.

I have to go above and beyond. I can’t just be okay or just wing it. I have to be extraordinary.

This wasn’t something I was aware of until I met with a Venture Capitalist last year. The person who got me  this meeting with him, was a white female who I consider a close friend co-conspirator. I asked her to sit in on it so I felt safe. Call it instinct. 

During the meeting, he had his video switched off the entire time. I recall him being out and about whilst taking my call. Of course I had prepared a presentation, I’m just not sure he saw any of the content since he had diallied in from his mobile phone.

I took him through my proposal and for all I knew, he had given me a positive response. He was going to take my proposal up with the Board, apparently.

After the call, my friend apologised to me. She said, “I am so sorry. I can’t believe how prepared you were for that call. How much you put into preparing for it. And he didn’t have the decency to have even really showed up for it.

I feel extremely aware of how much I benefit as a white woman. I don’t have to try as much just to get people to listen. I have never felt like I needed to prepare a deck. I’ve been given the benefit of the doubt. I even made mistakes in meetings with this person before but was still given the opportunity of a redo.”

My response, “Really? So you’re saying not everyone prepares this much?”

As recently as last year, I had not even realised I’d been discriminated against my entire working career, in this way.

It took for a white woman and a Woman of Colour to be in the same “test” environment to understand how they fare in comparison.

Debriefing on this meeting with my friend, and realising just how differently we are treated, made it really clear to me it’s a waste of my time speaking to people like that. This was an extremely valuable lesson – it’s made me become really good at identifying very early on which conversations are worth your time and which ones aren’t.

With all of that said and done, I think what’s most difficult is, how do you teach someone empathy? If you are a cis, white, middle-class male who has only ever experieced a life of privilege, how are you going to understand how life is experienced by someone on the complete other end of the spectrum? That’s what is difficult. What’s more, at the end of the day, it’s not my job, as a Woman of Colour, to be taking on the emotional labour to be providing that free education anyway. Where does that leave us?

Why do you think we should have more women of colour in STEM and social enterprise?

Growing up in Asia, I never felt a huge gender gap in STEM. Growing up, it was normal to see women working as engineers, doctors, lawyers, scientists.

Similarly there were tons of women working in the not-for-profit and social enterprise sector. I was born in Bangladesh, the home of Professor Muhammand Yunus who founded the concept of micro-credit where women are the preferred borrowers.

Moving here though the story is entirely different. The same women who worked in STEM in Asia work as nannies here. Purely from an economic perspective, it’s nothing short of a huge financial loss to the economy. According to the Alfred Deakin Institute, we know that systemic racism cost the country A$44.9 billion between 2001 and 2011.

So its not that there aren’t enough Women of Colour in STEM or social enterprise. There’s plenty. They’re either just under-estimated, passed over or not given due credit for their work, which means we don’t see them reach the top. 

What is social enterprise’s largest problem in western countries that you think we need to change? And how do you think having more women in the field will change things?

In the case of NFPs and social enterprises that specifically exist to support Women of Colour, you rarely find any Women of Colour represented at the leadership level.

Sure, there are plenty of WoC who are hired to work at the “grassroots” level to justify the organisation having some connection to the communities they’re meant to serve, Rarely do those WoC progress to meaningful roles with any authority or decision-making power in those organisations.

Lived experience should be the very first criteria to assess suitability to work for an organisation that exists to support Women of Colour. If you have no lived experience of intersectionality (specifically being a Woman of Colour), how can you possibly understand or feel, how deep the problem cuts? Or what exactly the solution should be? You can’t. Can you support from the sidelines? Certainly. But one can’t speak over Women of Colour to decide what solutions are best for them.

In short, the largest problem in Western countries where social enterprises are concerned, is when people holding positions of power in these organisations have zero lived experience, and therefore are not qualified, to be designing the solutions to the problems they’re trying to solve.

The line between impact and saviourism is an extremely fine one and I see it constantly, even amongst some of the most “forward thinking” social enterprises and startups.

Where it comes to the area of international development, there tends to be a bit of amnesia. For example, whilst there are social enterprises that are trying to support garment workers rights, it’s important to keep in mind the source of problems faced by the very same garment workers.

We’re not “saving” anyone when our consumption habits is what forced those people to work for under $2 a day. We’re actually just restoring equity.

The constant messaging of migrant and refugee women needing saving from themselves, to me, is a tired one. The underestimation. They can be more than factory, hospo and craft workers but those are the opportunities the sector seems to think they’re best suited for. I see it everywhere – it needs to stop because we are so much more than just the help..

We know what is best for us, and we should be the ones making those decisions.

What are your ‘chill-out’ activities? What do you do that calms you down or relaxes you?

There is nothing that beats lazing on the couch amidst a group cuddle session with my husband and our two two Brussels Griffons. Absolute favourite pastime. Other than tending to my million and one house plants. They say money can’t buy you happiness but it can. It can buy you puppies and plants.

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That’s according to a new report released on Tuesday, that found Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women with caring responsibilities are experiencing a ‘triple jeopardy’ when it comes to their experiences of discrimination and exclusion at work.

Indigenous women who are carers are the least likely to be supported when they experience racism or unfair treatment, and are more likely to feel unsafe in their workplace. They are also more likely to carry the “cultural load” in their workplace, that is, the extra unpaid work and expectations to educate others to make the workplace more culturally sensitive.

These findings come from a follow up of the Gari Yala (Speak the Truth) report that focused on gendered insights, a collaboration between the UTS Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, the Diversity Council of Australia, and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

The report marks the first time the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in Australian workplaces have been examined.

Dr Olivia Evans, the report’s author, said the report’s findings provide a deeper understanding on the intersection of gender and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity in Australian workplaces.

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women had significantly less support in culturally unsafe situations and had the highest cultural load,” Dr Evans said.

“These results suggest that trends of women’s disadvantage and marginalisation in the workplace are also present in the workplace experiences related to culture and identity.”

The 2021 Gari Yala report highlights the need for managers to create safe workplaces for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, especially those with caring responsibilities.

Nareen Young, Industry Professor at the Jumbunna Institute, said the institute was proud to share the gendered insights into the Indigenous employment sector.

“This report provides insights into the barriers Indigenous women face at work and the need for better support mechanisms for Indigenous women in the workplace,” Young said.

Lisa Annese, CEO of the Diversity Council of Australia, said the insights from the report demonstrate that women with intersectional identities face particular barriers in the workforce. It demonstrates “how important it is that workplaces take the time to understand the diverse experiences of different women”.

“This report is an important milestone: the first in-depth research into the experiences of Indigenous women in the workplace,” said Mary Wooldridge, Director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

“It helps to pave a way for employers to understand what is happening for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women inside businesses, and what must be done to recognise their unique experiences to ensure they are supported and enabled as valued employees.”

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In January, an unnamed incarcerated Aboriginal woman on remand at the Alexander Maconochie Centre in the ACT was the victim of an alleged strip search undertaken by four guards in full riot gear in full view of male detainees. The woman is a survivor of previous sexual assault and also has a serious heart condition.

Footage of the incident has been suppressed by the courts.

This case, along with many others, has sparked grave concern among health care professionals who work with Aboriginal women detainees. Some women subjected to strip searches have been as young as 15 years old.

Aboriginal women’s bodies are considered a sacred part of women’s business in Aboriginal lore and culture. Exposing sensitive parts of an Aboriginal woman’s body in front of men results in additional shame and guilt, as they are not able to uphold sacred values of their culture.

It is clear the justice system is failing to address the discrimination of Aboriginal women. At almost every stage of the criminal process, there are countless issues with police relations with Aboriginal women, including

• racial profiling by police
• excessive use of force and brutality during arrests
• human rights violations of Aboriginal women more generally.

While there are international legal instruments Australia endorses (like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), the government still makes little to no effort to uphold the rights of Aboriginal women in prison when it comes to self-determination and freedom from discrimination.

Ultimately, the system as it stands is operating in a culturally unsafe way.

Unnecessary strip-searches bring calls for inquiry

For any woman who is detained in prison, strip searches are a traumatic and confronting experience. Yet, in Australia, Aboriginal women detainees are strip searched at alarmingly higher rates than non-Indigenous women detainees.

According to the Melbourne-based Human Rights Legal Centre (HRLC), 208 strip searches were conducted on women detainees at AMC from October 2020 to April 2021. Of those, 121 were Aboriginal women, or 58%, despite the fact Aboriginal women made up just 44% of the prison’s population.

On January 22, Julie Tongs, CEO of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service, wrote a letter to the ACT corrective services minister, Mick Gentleman, expressing her concerns with how strip searches are conducted on Aboriginal women.

Ms Tongs demanded an inquiry into the allegations of strip searches of Aboriginal women detainees done by male officers or with males present. Her suggestion, based on years of experience working with incarcerated Aboriginal women, is for strip searches to be eliminated or at the very least, be used as a last resort.

Strip searches are only appropriate if there are fears the detainee might self-harm or pose a risk to staff or other inmates. In the letter, Ms Tongs also questions whether the potential existence of contraband is reasonable grounds at all for carrying out a strip search.

Despite the Corrections Management Act 2007 (ACT) requiring officers to provide a reason for each strip search they conduct, information released to the Human Rights Legal Centre revealed 49 strip searches during the six-month period at AMC appear to have been done without a reason.

Reform is needed beyond truth-telling catchphrases

One of the many recommendations in the [Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody 1991] report was that police violence, rough treatment, and verbal abuse of Aboriginal persons, including women and young people, should cease immediately.

Despite countless reports, further royal commissions and inquiries revealing issues in the criminal justice system with its treatment of Aboriginal people, we are yet to see the necessary structural reform required to change things for the better.

One of the issues identified in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar’s recent Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) report is the exclusion of Aboriginal women from participating in decision making on necessary law and policy reform.

The report shows how such a dialogue can help guide the structural reforms needed. However, by maintaining the exclusion of Aboriginal women and the further marginalisation of Aboriginal people sentenced to lengthy terms of imprisonment, the system remains the same.

Potential strategies for structural reform are also outlined in reports such as the deaths in custody royal commission and the Australian Law Reform Commission’s 2018 Pathways to Justice report, but they continue to fall by the wayside. All while the rates of Aboriginal women being incarcerated continue to climb.

Over-representation of Aboriginal women in prisons

Research findings from the Keeping Women Out of Prison Coalition show that almost a third of women prisoners in Australia are Indigenous, despite making up less than 3% of the population.

Further, two-thirds of imprisoned Aboriginal women are mothers, and most suffered from mental health issues, disability and experiences of trauma and abuse. Those factors of trauma and disadvantage can be drivers for Aboriginal women ending up in Australia’s criminal justice system in the first place.

In its current state, the criminal justice system is inadequately addressing the needs of Aboriginal women. This is particularly so for those who are on remand and unable to access necessary services while they are detained.

The Keeping Women Out of Prison Coalition confirms this and found there are also difficulties with providing services such as therapeutic sessions for women detained in prison.

The silence and complacency of ministers who could advocate for prison reform shows how power imbalances unfavourable to Aboriginal women are maintained. This is precisely how the government kicks the can on truth-telling processes without ever affording Aboriginal people substantive rights through structural reform.

Where to from here?

There needs to be urgent, systematic and structural reform of Australia’s criminal justice system. Reform of this kind must focus on addressing the entrenched, systematic racism and gender bias experienced by its fastest-growing population – Aboriginal women.

The system must stop punishing Aboriginal women and further entrenching their disadvantage, and instead promote healing, support and rehabilitation.

To do so, the voices of Aboriginal people and in particular, women, must be heard. It is only once this type of dialogue is created that necessary reform can take place.

Aboriginal women need to be protected, empowered and supported — not silenced.

Dr Dani Larkin, Lecturer/Deputy Director of the Indigenous Law Centre, UNSW

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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These are the words of criminal defence lawyer and activist Teela Reid, a proud Wiradjuri and Wailwan woman who is using her legal skills to fight back against the systematic oppression of First Nations people in Australia.

Speaking to Kate Mills on the latest episode of The Leadership Lessons, Reid explains that she became a lawyer, after first working as a teacher, because she felt a pressing sense of obligation to her people.

“I thought if this is the system that has an impact on stolen generations, on stolen wages, on oppressing my people, then I have an obligation to learn this system in order to empower my people and use it as a tool to fight back,” she says on the podcast.

In 2010, Reid was selected as Australia’s Indigenous Female Youth Delegate to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, where she was elected by the delegates to become the secretariat of the World Indigenous Youth Caucus.

For Reid, it was a life-changing experience that lit a fire in her belly.

“When you step into a room of First Nations peoples from around the globe, on different continents, you start to understand how invasion and colonisation has impacted so many different First Nations,” she said.

“It’s like a spectrum. At one end of the spectrum, there are First Nations peoples that have been colonised for many more years than what we have in Australia, so invasion has gone a lot deeper and some countries, for example, already have treaties.

“Whereas what really shook me to my core was that I got a sense of understanding of how big our struggle as First Nations people was here [in Australia], because we are a continent colonised without treaty, without a voice and without truth.”

Reid is now one of Australia’s leading voices in the fight for constitutional recognition of First Nations people, which she says is at a frustratingly early stage, in that Australia still does not recognise First Nations people in its foundational document.

Reid was a part of the initial meetings surrounding the development of the Uluru Statement of the Heart, and later became a working group leader on Section 51 (xxvi). She’s passionate about having conversation about treaties and truth telling.

“My role initially was very minor. I was probably one of the youngest or younger participants in a room full of elders and activists and I didn’t really say much. It was my role to sit and listen,” she said.

Reid believes the Uluru Statement from the Heart has been a game-changer, particularly in terms of the changing discussion at the community level with respect to the unceded sovereignty of the First Nations.

“There was an assumption in the western mindset that there was no such thing as First Nations sovereignty. That it is only the crown sovereignty, that it is only white sovereignty,” Reid says.

“[The Uluru Statement from the Heart] changed the game in the sense that it drew a line in the sand and said look, if we’re going to go down this path of addressing the unfinished business of recognising First Nations peoples, then we, as First Nations, are not accepting breadcrumbs.

“Our people are dying at the hands of the state, we are incarcerated at record rates…we don’t have the luxury of accepting breadcrumbs and symbolism. The fight is going to be for a First Nations voice and it’s about time that we also start to have conversations about treaties and truth telling.

“I think Australians know the truth. They know that this land was colonised without treaty. That’s a fact of our society. What I think is the more difficult question is how we grapple with that truth.”

When asked what she thinks about her own leadership, Reid says the idea of it sits a little bit uncomfortably with her. As she explains, in the Aboriginal community, leaders are elders, so she wouldn’t consider herself one.

Instead, she’s just trying to channel her anger, frustration, and glimmers of hope into advocacy and conversations that will make a difference for First Nations people.

She wants to see systemic racism dismantled within our institutions. It’s the very reason she has been a lead researcher in the Walama Court Proposal in NSW, a model that would see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders involved in the sentencing discussions in court.

“In the current status quo, we are not capturing the full weight of this intergenerational trauma and the impact of these systems on our people,” she said.

“I’m not settling for the status quo; I’m trying to create a world that is fairer and a world that is prepared to dismantle racism within its institutions.”

The Leadership Lessons podcast series, hosted by Kate Mills, is a set of interviews with brilliant female leaders across industries, sharing their perspective on the critical decade ahead.

The Leadership Lessons is supported by Salesforce.

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There are human rights invested in Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples via the United Nations declarations that are about sovereignty — and the ways that nation states are meant to negotiate with sovereign owners.

With that in mind, the government of a colonised nation is expected to engage with sovereign owners very differently.

Regrettably, the Commonwealth of Australia has indicated through the budget and the Women’s Economic Security Statement that they have no respect or consideration for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the sovereign owners of unceded land. And there is no reflection of the United National Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People in the budget.

That is deplorable – it’s a major oversight and incredibly worrying.

What’s more, the women’s economic security debate in no way reflects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s demographic profile, including the fact that a third of our population are under 15 years of age. If we were designing a budget and an economic security statement to meet our needs, we would do things very, very differently if we were planning for young people, compared to an older, ageing, mainstream population.

Serving the needs of young people, and young women, requires a far greater investment in the social determinants of health and wellbeing, including ensuring all young people receive an education that is meaningful. It also requires much more investment in the prevention of health issues and illness. And it requires a much longer-term plan for economic prosperity that takes into account the types of jobs that are going to be needed in the future when our young people enter the workforce.

In twenty years, our economy is going to be very different simply because of advances in technology and climate change.

If we’re thinking about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women now, we would be thinking about young women, with young children — not ageing women. Ageing women are a very small portion of our population. Yes, we do need to support them, but they are a minority of our population compared to our children and young people.

So, while the childcare debate did resonate — and it is important — Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were not heard directly in that debate, so the nuances were not conveyed or considered.

One issue is the location of childcare; we need to ensure that it is available in both urban and rural and remote areas because our population is more evenly spread between the two.

Also, we need investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled childcare. We’ve had some excellent successes in the past, with high rates of accessibility and holistic support for the family. But those services have been grossly underfunded and very few exist.

I would also argue for the reflection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures in mainstream childcare so that they’re not an extension of assimilationist policy and Anglo-Australian bias.

We can’t expect that an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family would just take their children to any childcare available. We have to ensure that — as the original cultures of this country — those cultures are able to shape childcare rather than assume that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander will assimilate.

Those types of considerations will help address some of the reasons that childcare is less accessible — and less accessed — by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. Those centres have to be of high quality and safe — and that includes culturally safety, not only physical safety.

Lastly, it’s very important to remember that the allocation of funds to mainstream services is higher in the budget than for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled services, even though Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander economic analysis shows that community-controlled services are more cost effective and accessed at far higher rates than mainstream services. And they’re culturally safe, whereas people frequently experience racism in mainstream services.

In response to the question: how do we not only get to a place where we have a “gendered lens on the budget” but an “intersectional gendered lens”?

It comes back to basics. Unless people have relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, they’re not really able to convey the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

It’s about much more than just inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to the table. It’s about actually listening to them, rather than talking at or over them. And those of us in paid work are exhausted. We get asked countless times a week for input. Women’s organisations — and any organisation that wants to work intersectionality — has to allocate funding to paying for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s time.

So as much as I respect efforts toward intersectionality, unless there are partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, — a sense of allyship and shoulder to shoulder representation — some of that language about intersectionality can be hollow. It’s all circular, and it plays a part in why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women might not engage.

This article is part of a series that is supported by the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.

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