One of Australia’s most revered Aboriginal leaders Lowitja O’Donoghue has died, aged 91, BBC reports.Dr O’Donoghue spent her life advocating for the health and rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the report said.A statement issued by Lowitja Institute said the Board, management and team express their deepest sadness at the passing of the organisation’s patron, namesake and founding chair Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG, who died peacefully on 4 February 2024, aged 91, with her immediate family around her.”Following the heartfelt statement issued by Dr O’Donoghue’s family, Lowitja Institute acknowledged in its own statement the legacy its patron leaves behind in advocating for, and improving, the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,” the statement said.Like other members of the stolen generations, O’Donoghue was taken from her family and home at a young age and raised in an institution. From the age of two she was brought up by missionaries at the Colebrook home for half-caste children. She was born on Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands at Granite Downs station in SA but did not know her birthdate. Missionaries assigned her the birthday of 1 August 1932, The Guardian said.By the age of 16 O’Dononghue was employed as a domestic servant in Victor Harbour in SA before campaigning to be allowed to pursue nursing training.She became the first Aboriginal person to train as a nurse at the Royal Adelaide hospital, the first Aboriginal person to be named a Companion of the Order of Australia, and the first to address the UN general assembly.Dr O’Donoghue received some of the nation’s top honours for her pioneering work and in 1984 was named Australian of the Year.PM’s TributePrime Minister Anthony Albanese is among those who have paid tribute to her, as a figure of “grace” and “moral clarity”.She had an “abiding faith in the possibility of a more united and reconciled Australia”, despite enduring discrimination from the “earliest days of her life”, he said in a statement.”Lowitja O’Donoghue was one of the most remarkable leaders this country has ever known,” he added.
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