Building a legacy: ANU names Cultural Centre in honour of the late Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue

Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue was just two years old when her life was irrevocably altered.

It was September 1934 on Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara land in north west South Australia.

The nights were cool, but the days were warm on the cattle station where a young Lowitja lived with her first-generation Irish father, her mother – Yankunytjatjara/ Pitjantjatjara woman Lily Woodforde – and four siblings.

Dr O’Donoghue and two of her sisters were forcibly removed from their mother and taken to the Colebrook Children’s Home (run by the United Aborigines Mission). It was the same place her two eldest siblings had been sent to eight years earlier.

Missionaries gave Dr O’Donoghue the name Lois. They fabricated her birthday too – 1 August – and prevented her from speaking her own language.

Growing up, Dr O’Donoghue was unaware that her mother had gone searching for her children. Lily reportedly trekked through 500 km of hot desert country with her two remaining children in tow.

It would take 33 years for Lily and her daughter to reunite – a chance encounter made difficult by their lack of a shared language. Dr O’Donoghue learned that her mother had named her Lowitja, and she later decided to proudly take on her given traditional name.

In her speech at the Seventh Annual Mahatma Gandhi Lecture on Nonviolence, Dr O’Donoghue spoke candidly about the trauma of the Stolen Generations, emphasising the importance of keeping these histories alive. 

“The effects of such dislocation and deprivation have been profoundly disabling, threatening the very core of our people’s well-being. And the effects are ongoing, setting up a vicious cycle of damage from which these children, and their children, have had difficulty escaping,” she said.

“We tji tji tjuta – Colebrook kids – were expected to be grateful for being saved.

“The legacy of the British invasion of Australia has been devastating for my people. And the atrocities that I have described cannot be dismissed conveniently as something that happened way back in Australia’s past.”

Defying the odds

Dr O’Donoghue’s experiences of marginalisation and racial inequality drove her to fight for social justice and the rights of First Nations communities.

Despite being raised to be a domestic servant, she was resolute in her desire to do more with her life and set her sights on a career in nursing. Her application to train at the Royal Adelaide Hospital was initially denied – a reflection of the undercurrent of systemic oppression flowing through Australian society.

But that didn’t stop her.

Dr O’Donoghue lobbied to reverse the decision, even seeking support from Sir Thomas Playford, the premier of South Australia at the time. Eventually, her efforts succeeded. In 1954, she became the first Aboriginal nurse permitted to train at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, going on to achieve triple certificate qualifications in nursing, midwifery and mental health.

In 1962, Dr O’Donoghue travelled to Assam in India to work for the Australian Baptist Missionary Society as a missionary relief nurse. It gave her new, fresh perspective on global Indigenous cultures and fuelled her passion to seek justice back home.

By the 1990s, she was the inaugural Chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), where she campaigned for the rights of Indigenous Australians. One of her greatest achievements was working alongside prime minister Paul Keating as a lead negotiator on the Native Title Act following the landmark 1992 Mabo decision.

“ATSIC represents more than an amalgamation of the former Department and the former ADC, of which I was Chairperson for a short period,” said Dr O’Donoghue at the Third Biennial lecture on Aboriginal Administration.

“It is an attempt to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the power to make decisions in respect of the programs that affect them.”

Dr O’Donoghue was also instrumental in the 2008 National Apology to the Stolen Generations, and in 2010 the Lowitja Institute was established. It was Australia’s first national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research institute – and through the gifting of her name, would be an organisation Dr O’Donoghue entrusted with her values, energy and spirit. 

Her work earned her some of Australia’s most revered honours – Member of the Order of Australia (AM), Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), Australian of the Year, Australian National Living Treasure, Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) and a NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award.

Throughout her life, Dr O’Donoghue continued to advocate for reconciliation.

“We must accept that Aboriginal people can find solutions to our problems, and that we have a right to make decisions over issues that affect our children and our communities,” said Dr O’Donoghue at the State Face Forum in 1998.

“The acceptance of this proposition is also a move towards reconciliation. It involves collaborative decision making and consultation between departments, agencies and Aboriginal people. In fact, it means changing assumptions and changing structures. I think we need to, if we are to turn around the appalling state of affairs that currently exists.”

Honouring her legacy

In recognition of Dr O’Donoghue’s remarkable life, and her significant contribution to advancing the lives of First Nations people, the Australian National University (ANU) awarded her an honorary Doctorate of Law in 1995. She became the first Aboriginal person to be recognised with an honorary doctorate from ANU.

Dr O’Donoghue passed away on 4 February 2024 on Kaurna Country in Adelaide, South Australia, and her legacy endures across the nation and globally.

Now, ANU is naming the University’s cultural centre after Dr O’Donoghue. She is the first Aboriginal person to be recognised through the University’s building renaming initiative, joining two other inspiring women honoured by the project. Of the 242 buildings on the ANU campus only seven are named after women – including the Lowitja O’Donoghue Cultural Centre.

At the official naming ceremony, O’Donoghue’s niece and Head of Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation, Deb Edwards, reflected on her aunt’s recent passing and what this honour would have meant to her.

“Our aunt spent many years working and living in Canberra and during that time was honoured to become the University’s first Aboriginal person to be awarded an honorary doctorate,” Ms Edwards said.

“Her incredible legacy and lifelong dedication to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, is now reflected through the naming of the Cultural Centre, where community can gather together, enthused with a feeling of unity, connection and culture, as Dr O’Donoghue always encouraged. I know that she would feel very proud to share her name with ANU.”

ANU Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell went on to reflect on the significance of this initiative for the University.

“I think part of what helped me to drive the organisation at a speed it doesn’t always find comfortable to name this building, was thinking about all the ways that Dr O’Donoghue embodies 90 years of First Nations experiences in this country. Stolen Generations, first referendum, fighting to be recognised, fighting to be acknowledge, fighting for change, fighting to be seen, fighting for people, fighting for other people’s people.

“There are many here, whose names are part of a part of Australian history, and we should shout to the rooftops, or, in this case, emblazoned on a building on two sides, so that you can’t miss it.”