Lowitja O'Donoghue - Commonwealth Public Service - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission

In 1990 Ms O'Donoghue was appointed Chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission a position she held until 1996. In 1991, she, along with Alf Bamblett and Steve Gordon, became the Aboriginal people to attend a Cabinet meeting. Ms O'Donoghue used this occasion to put ATSIC's position forward with regard to the government's response to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

In December 1992, Ms O'Donoghue became the first Australian Aboriginal person to address the United Nations General Assembly during the launch of the United Nations International Year of Indigenous People. She was replaced as Chairperson by Gatjil Djerrkura, who was considered by the Howard Government to be more moderate.

Read more about this topic:  Lowitja O'Donoghue, Commonwealth Public Service

Famous quotes containing the words aboriginal, strait and/or commission:

    John Eliot came to preach to the Podunks in 1657, translated the Bible into their language, but made little progress in aboriginal soul-saving. The Indians answered his pleas with: ‘No, you have taken away our lands, and now you wish to make us a race of slaves.’
    —Administration for the State of Con, U.S. public relief program. Connecticut: A Guide to Its Roads, Lore, and People (The WPA Guide to Connecticut)

    We approached the Indian Island through the narrow strait called “Cook.” He said, “I ‘xpect we take in some water there, river so high,—never see it so high at this season. Very rough water there, but short; swamp steamboat once. Don’t paddle till I tell you, then you paddle right along.” It was a very short rapid. When we were in the midst of it he shouted “paddle,” and we shot through without taking in a drop.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Children cannot eat rhetoric and they cannot be sheltered by commissions. I don’t want to see another commission that studies the needs of kids. We need to help them.
    Marian Wright Edelman (20th century)