Australian Dictionary of Biography

Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue

Photograph by Leanne King

Lowitja O’Donoghue (1932–2024), campaigner for Aboriginal rights and nurse, was born in 1932 at De Rose Hill, Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, South Australia, second youngest child of Yankunytjatjara–Pitjantjatjara woman Lily Woodforde (d. 1979) and Thomas O’Donoghue, Irish station worker. In September 1934, aged two, she was removed from her mother and sent to Colebrook Home, Quorn, along with two of her siblings, Amy (aged four) and Violet (aged six). Her older siblings, Eileen and Geoffrey, had been placed at the same home eight years earlier.

Established in 1927 Colebrook Home was managed by missionary sisters Ruby Hyde and Delia Rutter on behalf of the United Aborigines’ Mission. They renamed Lowitja ‘Lois’ and gave her a birth date: 1 August 1932. She was not permitted to speak in language or see her parents. Religious education and strict discipline, rather than love and affection, characterised her early life:

Bells rang all day every day. So we got up to the bell, we went to breakfast with the bell, marching in singing hymns ... everything we did, we answered to the bell so it was very, very disciplined and very structured. (O’Donoghue 1994)

Life at the home revolved around chores, church, and school. Lowitja attended Quorn Primary School and, after the home was relocated to Eden Hills, Unley Girls’ Technical High School. After gaining her Intermediate certificate in 1948 she was sent into domestic service. Hyde’s expectations were low: ‘Matron said that I’d never amount to anything and that I’d almost certainly “get into trouble” as soon as I left the Home’ (O’Donoghue 2010).

Lowitja was sent to Victor Harbor to work for a family with six children. While working there she met Alice Evelyn Tuck, matron of the South Coast District Hospital (SCDH). With Tuck’s support, she commenced nursing training at the SCDH in around 1950. Expecting to transfer to the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) after two years to complete her training, she was disappointed to be told by the matron there to go to Alice Springs and nurse ‘her own people’ (O’Donoghue 1994). Lowitja was put in touch with Tuck’s cousin, (Sir) Thomas Playford, who was also the premier of South Australia. Playford was sympathetic, but unhelpful. Seeking greater support, she joined the Aborigines Advancement League of South Australia (AAL), then presided over by long-time campaigner for Aboriginal rights Charles Duguid. In 1953 Duguid organised a Town Hall meeting in Adelaide for Aboriginal people to have their voices heard. The RAH’s refusal to train Aboriginal nurses was aired. A few days later, Lowitja and several other Aboriginal women were invited to commence their training at RAH.

The years Lowitja had spent at SCDH were not recognised, meaning she had to restart her training. Nevertheless, she resolved:

that I was going to be the best nurse that that hospital had ever had and I worked hard at it, in more ways than one. I made sure that my shoes were shinier, my uniforms were whiter, and that I was always on time, and I did the best, best possible job. (O’Donoghue 1994)

After qualifying in 1958 she was invited to stay on at RAH as a charge nurse, later charge sister. In 1962 she went to Assam, India, as a relief nurse for the Australian Baptist Mission. She had hoped to stay for three years but was evacuated due to the Sino-Indian War after just one year. Keen to pursue community nursing, she worked briefly at the RAH on her return before moving to the Repatriation General Hospital. There she met her future husband, Gordon Smart, a medical orderly; they would marry at Pichi Richi Pass near Quorn in 1979.

In 1965, with Gladys Elphick and Maude Tongerie, Lowitja co-founded the Council of Aboriginal Women of South Australia, becoming the organisation’s secretary. Involved with the ‘Yes’ campaign for the 1967 referendum, she hitchhiked to Canberra to be there when the result was announced. That year she joined the South Australian Department of Aboriginal Affairs as a welfare officer at Coober Pedy, servicing Oodnadatta and the APY Lands. She was quickly recognised as Lily’s daughter and learned that her birth name was Lowitja. Several months passed before she could travel to Oodnadatta to meet Lily. During that time Lily waited by the roadside every day. When they were finally reunited, they found it difficult to communicate due to barriers of language.

During the early 1970s Lowitja ‘was involved in every Aboriginal movement that there was’ (O’Donoghue 1994): she was a founding member of the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement (1970–72), member of the National Aborigines Day Observance Committee, and fought for better medical, housing, and education services for Aboriginal people. In 1973 she joined the newly created Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA) as a senior liaison officer. She was appointed regional director of the Adelaide office three years later, but resigned after just twelve months, worn down by ‘continual frustration at not being able to do more for her people’ (Port Lincoln Times 1985, 16). An early member of the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee established by the Whitlam government, she was elected foundation chair of the restructured and renamed National Aboriginal Conference (NAC) in 1977. She had been appointed AM for her services to the Aboriginal community the previous year.

In 1980 Lowitja was appointed to the newly formed Aboriginal Development Commission headed by Arrernte and Kalkadoon man Charles Perkins. The following year she replaced Perkins as chairperson of Aboriginal Hostels Ltd, remaining in the role until 1990. Appointed CBE in 1982, she was named Australian of the Year in 1984. That year Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen opened the Lois O’Donoghue Hostel at Port Augusta, South Australia. In 1985 the minister for Aboriginal affairs Clyde Holding sought her advice on a replacement organisation for the NAC. Following extensive consultations with Indigenous people, which she initiated herself, she recommended ‘a blend between representation from existing organisations and from the [Aboriginal] community at large’ (Canberra Times 1985, 3). The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), established in 1990, reflected that vision. Consisting of thirty-five regional councils of up to twenty councillors elected every three years, ATSIC was chaired by Lowitja from 1990 to 1996.

In 1992, the same year the landmark Mabo decision was handed down by the High Court of Australia, Lowitja became the first Aboriginal person to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York for the launch of the International Year of the World’s Indigenous People, using her speech to call for constitutional recognition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Working closely with Prime Minister Paul Keating, she played a pivotal role in the complex and tense negotiations that preceded the passage of the Native Title Act 1993. She believed these negotiations put a number of ‘tired old arguments … to rest,’ such as the idea ‘that Aboriginal people could not negotiate, that a united front of indigenous organisations could not be achieved [and] that ATSIC could never gain a political voice independent of government’ (O’Donoghue 1999, 338). For her role in defending ‘Eddie Mabo's great legacy,’ Guggu Yalanji and Bagaarrmugu man Noel Pearson would later describe her as ‘our greatest leader of the modern era’ (Pearson 2018).

From 1991 to 1996 Lowitja was a member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. Appointed to the Federal government’s Republic Advisory Committee in 1993, she was one of Senator Cheryl Kernot’s preferred candidates for president. Keating considered her for the role of governor-general in 1995. In 1996 she became the inaugural chair of the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal and Tropical Health, holding this position until 2003. She was also a director of the Rio Tinto Aboriginal Fund from 1996 to 2005. Named a National Living Treasure in 1998, she was appointed AC in 1999, the award recognising her ‘public service through leadership to indigenous and non-indigenous Australians in the areas of human rights and social justice, particularly as chairperson of [ATSIC]’ (Commonwealth of Australia Gazette 1999, 1). Later that year she was one of five Aboriginal delegates invited to Buckingham Palace to meet with Queen Elizabeth II.

Chairperson of the National Indigenous Advisory Committee of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (1998–2000), Lowitja was also a member of the Volunteers 2000 Advisory Committee (1997–2000) and part of the torch relay, carrying the torch at Uluru. At the conclusion of the Sydney Olympic Games she was one of three people awarded an Olympic Order (silver) for her distinguished service. In 2006 she was appointed a dame of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great by Pope John Paul II. Having long called for an apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples, particularly the Stolen Generations, she was seated on the floor of the chamber of the House of Representatives for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s formal apology on behalf of the nation on 13 February 2008. Afterwards she complimented Rudd in her own backhanded fashion: ‘Wonderfully done, Kevie … only 200 years too late’ (cited in Williams and Boltje 2024).

Lowitja could be ‘cheeky, loving, [and] stern—all at once’ (Williams and Boltje 2024). Staunch, tenacious, and formidable in negotiations, she was known for her passion and compassion. She received honorary doctorates from numerous Australian universities and was the patron of many organisations, including the Lowitja Institute (2010–24), an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander–community-controlled health research institute. On 4 February 2024 she died peacefully on Kaurna Country, her family at her side; her husband had died in 1991. A State funeral was held in her honour at St Peter’s Cathedral, North Adelaide, on 8 March 2024, International Women’s Day. In attendance, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described her as a remarkable and powerful leader, one known for her ‘abiding faith in the possibility of a more united Australia’ (Albanese 2024). Her vision to empower the next generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders to lead with, and for their communities, continues through the work of the Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation. In 2025 the Lowitja Institute and the Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation recognised 1 August as Lowitja O’Donoghue Day, and the Australian National University opened the Lowitja O’Donoghue Cultural Centre. As Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar said: ‘She will be remembered always as a remarkable woman who lived across a sweeping history and changing times, tirelessly working with conviction, great integrity and dignity to pursue our rights’ (Oscar 2024).

Natalie Harkin is Narungga and Denise Noack is of German descent. They consulted with Lowitja O’Donoghue’s niece Deb Edwards, head of the Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation, in researching and writing this article.