2025 Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration

18th Annual Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration with Romlie Mokak

The Don Dunstan Foundation is honoured to present this significant Reconciliation Week event dedicated to the legacy of the late Dr. Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG.

This oration serves as a platform to highlight critical issues facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, continuing Dr O’Donoghue’s lifetime of work pursuing social justice and equality. This year, Romlie Mokak will deliver the address, reflecting on pressing challenges and inspiring action for positive change.

Romlie Mokak is a Djugun man and a member of the Yawuru people. In early 2024, Rom completed his five-year term as the first Aboriginal Commissioner at the Productivity Commission. He led a body of work including reviews of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap and National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, inquiry into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Visual Arts and Crafts and Indigenous Evaluation Strategy.

Prior to the Commission, Rom led key national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations as CEO of Lowitja Institute and the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association. He previously worked for the Australian Government where he had policy and program responsibility in areas such as substance use, male health and eye health, within the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health. At state level, he was the first Aboriginal policy officer appointed to the New South Wales Department of Ageing and Disability.

Rom was a past chair of the Indigenous Governance Awards, National Health Leadership Forum, the Canada–Australia Indigenous Health and Wellness Working Group and the Pacific Region Indigenous Doctors Congress CEOs’ Forum. He is patron of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services and a member of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare board.

Join us for an evening of insightful discourse and reflection as we honour Dr O’Donoghue’s legacy.

The Don Dunstan Foundation is honoured to present this significant event dedicated to the legacy of the late Dr. Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG.
Dr. O’Donoghu, a distinguished Yankunytjatjara woman, dedicated her life to advocating for the welfare of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, leaving an indelible mark on Australia’s social landscape.

This oration serves as a platform to highlight critical issues facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, continuing Dr. O’Donoghue’s tireless pursuit of social justice and equality. Each year, a prominent guest orator is invited to deliver a powerful address, reflecting on pressing challenges and inspiring action for positive change.

Join us for the 18th annual oration, an evening of insightful discourse and reflection as we honour Dr. O’Donoghue’s legacy and explore vital issues impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Raise a Glass

Join us for our yearly celebration of Don Dunstan’s legacy and achievements, timed to coincide with the end of the “six o’clock swill”. This year, we’ll also be celebrating 25 years of the Don Dunstan Foundation.

This year’s event will be held on Thursday 26 September at 5.30pm at the Strathmore Hotel, 129 North Terrace. It will be a fundraising event for the Foundation, with proceeds to go towards next year’s program of events and activities.

We’ll have details, including a ticket booking link, in a forthcoming newsletter, or watch this page over the next week.

Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration 2024 Professor Tom Calma AO

The Don Dunstan Foundation was proud to present the 17th annual Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration.

This year’s Oration was delivered by Professor Tom Calma AO, on Wednesday 29 May 2024, entitled “Looking Back to Look Forward – lessons from the past to influence actions of the future“.

Professor Tom Calma AO FAA FASSA FAHA is an Aboriginal Elder from the Kungarakan tribal group and a member of the Iwaidja and Woolwonga tribal groups in the Top End of the NT. He has a long and distinguished career in academia, public service bureaucracy, social justice and community development. Professor Calma was the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner (2004-2010) and the Race Discrimination Commissioner (2004-2009) with the Australian Human Rights Commission, and Chancellor of the University of Canberra (2014-2023).

His call for Australia to address the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in 2006 was the catalyst for the Close the Gap Campaign that led to the government’s Closing the Gap initiative in 2008. He was instrumental in establishing the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples and he co-led the co-design of a Voice to Parliament initiative with Professor Dr Marcia Langton AO. He was the 2023 Senior Australian of the Year and he is the inaugural Indigenous Australian appointed a Fellow to the Australian Academy of Science.

The Oration honours the influential Aboriginal leader, the late Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG, and seeks to highlight vital issues for Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The Oration is presented by the Don Dunstan Foundation in collaboration with Reconciliation SA; The University of Adelaide; Flinders University; the Lowitja Institute and the Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation. The Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration honours the cultural respect between Don Dunstan and Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue.

Dr O’Donoghue was a Yankunytjatjara woman who dedicated her life to improving the welfare of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. She passed away on February 4, 2024 on Kaurna Country.

In 2021, Dr O’Donoghue was presented with the Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University (honoris causa) by The University of Adelaide.

The Foundation would like to thank BHP, the Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation division within the Attorney General’s Department and SA Power Networks, for supporting the event.

Oration Recording

In relation to the comments on the Voice Referendum, please note the reference to 192,000 voters was an error and should have been a reference to 1.92 million voters.

Oration Transcript

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Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration 2022 | Hon Linda Burney MP

Hon Linda Burney MP

Hon Linda Burney MP delivered the 15th annual Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration at Bonython Hall in Adelaide on Tuesday 31 May during National Reconciliation Week.

The Oration honours the influential Aboriginal leader, Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG and gives voice to vital issues for our nation’s first people.

Ms Burney, the first Indigenous woman elected to the Federal House of Representatives, chose as the title for her address ‘The Way Forward – Informed by the Past’.

Ms Burney delivered the Oration on the eve of being sworn in as Australia’s Minister for Indigenous Affairs – the first Indigenous woman to hold the position.

The Foundation is proud to collaborate with Reconciliation South Australia, The University of Adelaide and Flinders University for each year’s Oration, and to continue the important conversations on Reconciliation.

With thanks to 2022 Oration sponsors SA Power Networks, BHP and Government of South Australia.

 

Oration recording

Transcript

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Annalise sets the bar high

Annalise Delic

Annalise Delic is not one to shy away from a challenge. 

Inspired by her mother’s commitment to supporting her and her twin sister to succeed, the 22-year-old is forging the career she has long dreamt of. 

“I knew I wanted to do law for a very long time,” she explained. “I knew the ATAR I needed so in year nine I moved secondary schools to study at Eynesbury where I knew I would be better placed to achieve it.” 

Not only did Annalise reach her goal, her 99.4 ATAR gained her a Governor’s Commendation and set her on her path to undertake a Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Arts at the University of Adelaide.  

But, when life threw some curveballs her way, Annalise felt uncertain about the future. 

“My family was going through some testing financial times and personally, I was struggling with a few things,” she said.  

Annalise knew where she wanted to go in her career, but she wasn’t sure how she was going to get there. That’s when she spotted an email promoting the Don Dunstan Foundation’s Len King Scholarship just days before applications closed. 

“My mum helped me prepare and I remember staying up really late to get my application together,” she recalled. “It was a bit nerve-wracking and I felt quite daunted by the interview process so when I found out I was successful, I was really proud. 

“It (the scholarship) wasn’t just about me it was about my whole family.” 

Now, two years on and undertaking her Honours, the scholarship has opened doors for Annalise that she wouldn’t otherwise have been able to consider. 

“It’s given me security and with it has come freedom to pursue opportunities and experiences,” she said. 

This includes travelling to Melbourne to undertake clerkships with three of Australia’s top tier law firms. 

“Having the chance to undertake my clerkships with these firms, where they are doing some of the most challenging and complex work, was important to me.” 

Annalise said the experiences had also helped hone her passion for advocacy and how she intends to give back to the community. 

“I have spent time working in a Native Title practice, where I learnt the importance of listening to a client’s experience and doing my best to understand legal issues from their perspective,” she explained. 

“The majority of my academic studies have focused on international law and humanitarian law, and I hope to be able to incorporate my passion for human rights into my career.” 

Which, in part, leads to where Annalise is this week – travelling to Hong Kong for the Red Cross’ International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Moot – an inter-university law competition open to law schools in the Asia-Pacific Region. She qualified after her team won the national competition in Brisbane. 

“It’s always been about learning and challenging yourself,” she said. “For a while I doubted myself and what I could achieve. The scholarship has taught me to have confidence in myself and the goals I set and to just go for it.” 

Project to imagine our future launched

A new collaborative project focusing on how, in what ways, and by whom ‘the future’ is imagined has been launched by The University of Adelaide and the Don Dunstan Foundation.
 
Many global surveys report that the future is anxiously imagined, especially as we collectively worry about COVID, the economy, and the health of the planet. At the same time, there is much hope for the future when solutions are proposed by experts or when problems seem to abate.
 
Professor Simone Dennis, Head of the School of Social Sciences and project lead, said not everyone has opportunity to have their ideas of the future included.
 
“Imagining the future should be inclusive and it’s vital we give voice to marginalised groups including the elderly, the terminally ill, homeless and dispossessed people, children and young people, and people living with disability,’’ she said.
 
“Yet, visions for the future tend to be dominated by the powerful and experts, and those with the skills and resources to make themselves heard.
 
“In contrast, this project seeks to highlight imaginations of the future that have been left out or even avoided.”
 
The project, called the Forum for the Public Imagination of the Future, will include a series of initiatives designed to uncover public desires and dreams, anxieties and fears about the future. Researchers will collaborate with groups who are often marginalised or excluded to help produce more inclusive and varied accounts of what the future might hold.
 
“Even ideas of the future that are disagreeable or seem inconvenient will be included – it’s important to capture the full gamut of ideas so that they can be debated, fears addressed, and so that the future can be brought into the present as something to work on together,’’ said Professor Dennis.
 
As a thought leadership organisation, the Don Dunstan Foundation is proud to support this innovative and inclusive work which aligns with our goal to inspire action for a fairer world. The Foundation works with research, policy makers and community groups to address social needs in South Australia and believe this project will provide a way of amplifying the voices of those who are not always included in the discussion about the future.
 
The project will begin in early 2023 with the aim of finding new ideas about a better future for more of us, especially focusing on how exclusion – from the city, the university, from participation in the future – can be addressed.
 
For more information, contact Professor Simone Dennis on simone.dennis@adelaide.edu.au

BLOG: Practical solutions to address the hospitality skills shortage

By Rohan Gaskin Charles, Intern, Flinders University |

Australia like the rest of the world is still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic consequences attributed to lockdowns.

Here in South Australia businesses are struggling to find staff to meet demand from a population eager to return to a pre-pandemic lifestyle.

The staff shortages are putting considerable strain on the Hospitality Industry, which was also hit hard by lockdowns.

Reduced opening hours, limited menus, and fatigued employees are consequences of an acute staff shortage felt most severely in regional areas but also in the Adelaide metropolitan area itself.

Increased migration to South Australia could offer businesses a ‘lifeline’ so they can keep providing a high level of service now synonymous with the South Australian food and wine scene.

This report will examine the historical circumstances of immigration to Australia and look at Don Dunstan’s political legacy, which was instrumental in reforming South Australia and setting us on a path toward a more egalitarian society.

Dunstan’s ability to get results for the State of South Australia was formidable, his political will and advocacy changed this state and nation for the better.

This report seeks to highlight those results and identify how his political legacy has ongoing relevance for South Australians today as well as to recommend some practical solutions to the current skills shortage.

Read the report in full

OPINION: Adventures in Truss-land

Dr Rob Manwaring, Flinders University |

Not too long ago, Australia became something of a global joke in terms of the churn of its political leaders.

Since the demise of John Howard in 2007, Australia managed to have 6 Prime Ministers (PM) in just over a decade. Remarkably, Scott Morrison was the first PM to serve out a full term in office since Howard.

This mantle has now seemingly passed to the United Kingdom, with the advent of Liz Truss as the new British Prime Minister.

Since 2010, Britain has now had five PMs, and Liz Truss is the fourth Conservative leader following the turmoil unleashed by David Cameron’s decision to hold a referendum on leaving on the European Union.

Leadership instability is a sign of an unhealthy of democracy.

To say that Liz Truss’s first few weeks as PM have been tumultuous is also something of an understatement.

After a long campaign for the leadership, Truss won just 57.4% of the vote of over the 140,000 conservative party members. This remains one of the lowest mandates ever achieved for a Conservative leader.

More significantly however, is the disjunct between the conservative membership base and the wider British public.

Conservative members are more likely to be older, affluent, live in the south, and were also more likely to have supported Brexit. This creates a representation gap, where the promises a new leader has to make to its base to win the leadership are significantly out of step with the expectations and needs of wider public.

For example, the costs and benefits of Brexit are unequally felt, and most conservative party members will have no direct consequence for the fallout the unresolved dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol which governs trade between Europe and Northern Ireland.

What then was Truss’s mandate to lead the party?

Truss herself is something of a political shape-shifter. As is becoming well-known, Truss was a former member of the centrist Liberal Democrats, the historically smaller third party in UK politics.

Truss was known for a range of socially progressive views, including abolishing the monarchy as a student. Truss then later joined the moderate socially liberal or ‘wet’ flank of the conservative party, and perhaps more pertinently than the seeming radicalism of her youth, was her strong support for the ‘Remain’ campaign.

Yet, Truss won the backing of her party largely due to her shift and pursuit of a narrow economic agenda which made a strong appeal to significant tax cuts to the more well-off, and a shrinking of the state.

This was a brand of a very narrow neoliberalism, which panders to a specific wing of the party. As critics have decried, Truss campaigned in ‘Thatcher cosplay’.

On assuming the leadership, Truss quickly appointed her cabinet. It is striking too in how the UK leads Australia on forms of descriptive representation, which now has had its third female PM, and currently all four members of the inner core of cabinet (PM, Chancellor, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary) are non-White males.

Yet, what unites them is a strong commitment to this crude variant of laissez-faire economics. Truss’s Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is seemingly an even stronger proponent of this agenda than Truss.

While Truss was a Johnson loyalist, she was keen to differentiate herself not only from the toxicity of his government, but also his economic and political agenda.

Shortly after taking the leadership, Truss’s conservatives introduced a mini-budget, with its eye-watering proposals, including significant tax cuts (abolishing the 45% top rate of income tax), fuelled by further government borrowing.

The backlash from the markets was swift and brutal, with the Bank of England forced to intervene, and the IMF issuing a stern warning to avoid debt-funded tax cuts.

At the moment, it is political party conference season in the UK, and on the eve of the Conservative party conference, Truss was forced into a humiliating U-turn on her income tax proposal, noting the ‘turbulence’ of her government’s budgetary measures.

Politically for Truss, the first few weeks have been highly damaging. She has failed to enjoy the usual customary ‘bounce’ in the polls, and indeed, her net approval rating as PM has gone into free-fall from -9 to a catastrophic -37. To put this into context, this is a worse net approval rating than Johnson’s -28 in his final week in office.

Truss appears to have wasted valuable political capital on a naïve and quixotic economic agenda in country which has over 2,500 food banks, and at the height of COVID-19 had over 11% of respondents using them.

Taking a wider view, Truss’s ill-fortunes are emblematic of a wider crisis on the centre-right.

In 2021, Bale and Kaltwasser published a landmark book on the crisis of the centre-right, taking in the political decline of many mainstream centre-right parties, such as the German CDU.

In part, this crisis is driven by a declining vote share of the major parties in many advanced industrial countries (including Australia).

What seems to be behind this crisis is a shift in cultural values in many countries; and how conservative politics has been unable to reconcile its different political traditions.

Most acutely is the gap between the right’s socially conservative tradition with those pursuing for a classical liberal form of economics.

In Trussland, the crisis seems starker than elsewhere, and at this rate of change, the Conservatives may yet again be looking for a new party leader.

Dr Manwaring is Associate Professor, College of Business, Government and Law at Flinders University.

Young lawyer on her way thanks to scholarship

PICTURED: Samantha Thomas with sister Emma at their graduation.

A desire to help people led Samantha Thomas to a career in law – and a Len King Scholarship helped her to fulfil her dream.

With sister Emma, Samantha became the first person in her family to go to university and after graduating in May she’s now in full-time employment.

‘In my third year at uni, I came across the scholarship. I never imagined myself applying because I didn’t know if I’d fit the criteria,’ she said.

‘When it came time to do my placement, I realised I might need some help and my sister encouraged me to apply.’

With a strong interest in social justice and volunteering experience, Samantha was one of four successful scholarship recipients in 2021.

Studying legal studies at Para Hills High School gave Samantha her first taste of the law and she soon saw it as a way to help others.

‘I really want to help people,’ she said. ‘That’s one of the core values I hold and I always have.

‘I’ve always found the law interesting and when I got to study legal studies at high school I thought ‘this is what I want to do’. This is how I’m going to help people.’

Samantha studied a Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice at Flinders University and now works for the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.

As a Legal Associate to the Hon Justice Christine Mead, Samantha runs the courtroom for trials, undertakes legal research and prepares summaries and judgements.

Samantha is passionate about helping other young people to see the value of going to university and takes any opportunity to spread that message.

As for the future, Samantha sees a path forward in family law, her area of interest, but she’s not prescriptive on what that path looks like.

‘I’m hoping it will come to me as I follow the path. I’ll keep taking any opportunities that come my way and see if that’s what I want to do.’

OPINION: First Nations Voice to SA Parliament a vital step

Dale Agius

By Dale Agius, South Australia’s Commissioner for First Nations Voice |

The historic 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart was a call from Aboriginal people across the country for substantial constitutional change and structural reform, to ensure Aboriginal people have a say in decision-making that affects their lives, and to enable a process of treaty making and truth-telling.

In my time in the public service, I have seen all too clearly the consequences of disempowering or ignoring the wisdom of Aboriginal people.

I’ve seen it as an Aboriginal Program Officer (Rehabilitation Programs Branch) in the Department for Correctional Services and, more recently, as a Director within the Department of Human Services, one of the key government agencies charged with supporting vulnerable South Australians.

This is why I believe a Voice to Parliament is such an important initiative. It gives Aboriginal people and communities a voice at the highest level of decision-making in our State.

It’s about empowering our people and communities, but also strengthening South Australia’s Parliament so that it is informed, just and fair, and enables self-determination.

I was appointed to the inaugural position of South Australia’s Commissioner for First Nations Voice in July, to undertake a state-wide consultation with Aboriginal people in South Australia and lay the foundations for a state-based implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Since my appointment, I’ve been speaking with Aboriginal people across South Australia about what they think would work best.

Do they support a voice to South Australia’s Parliament? If so, what is the best approach? Is it a representative body or an individual?

Should it provide advice directly to Parliament or to a parliamentary committee or other? Should the Voice be appointed or elected? If elected, should the Voice represent the diversity of the Aboriginal community, and if so, how?

So far, it’s clear there is support for a First Nations Voice to South Australia’s Parliament among our people and communities.

It’s been encouraging and inspiring to hear from people who are passionate advocates for change, and many have shared insightful, considered opinions about how to develop this representation. 

There is optimism for the future, despite the challenges and inequalities our people experience and the disappointment of previous failures in government policy.

Our people are still living with unacceptable levels of socioeconomic disadvantage. Too many are in jail and there are widespread inequalities in areas such as health, education, housing and employment.

The Voice can play a vital role in bringing attention to these issues and strengthen the approaches committed under Closing the Gap that are critical to driving positive improvement in outcomes, across a broad range of socio-economic targets.

It is clear that change is needed and a First Nations Voice to South Australia’s Parliament is an important step forward. Many have told me already that this is long overdue.

All Members of Parliament will benefit from advice from South Australian Aboriginal people before decisions are made about issues that affect them. They will be more informed and better equipped to make sound decisions in the best interests of our communities.

A Voice to South Australia’s Parliament will also send an important message about how we value and respect Aboriginal people and recognise them as the State’s first peoples and nations.

The first round of consultation sessions with Aboriginal people and communities will run until early October. The feedback gained through these sessions will inform the development of a model for the Voice, which will then be consulted on more broadly across the State.

The State Government hopes to have a Bill presented to Parliament for its consideration next year.