How one day changed Deb Edwards’ life and made her the keeper of her family’s stories
It’s a moment largely unspoken about but proud Yankunytjatjara woman Deb Edwards shares in detail how her mum Amy Levai passed away in front of her eyes.
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the following story contains images of deceased persons.
On March 29, 2013, proud Yankunytjatjara woman Deb Edwards lost herbeloved mother Amy Levai but also found her true calling.
My mother passed away on Good Friday.
That she chose a holy day to leave this earth didn’t surprise me.
Mum had bowel cancer, which she had been struggling with for about two years, she was palliative so I knew she probably wouldn’t make it through Easter.
I was with her in the aged care home … beanbag on the floor, holding her hand. I had turned all the lights off and brought in my little collection of rock salt lamps … the room was candlelit in a really nice way I knew she would love. I felt happy that I created such a peaceful environment for her.
When she passed just after 7.30am, rays of sunlight were coming through the curtains, which was a really beautiful way to leave. I phoned my Aunty, Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue, Mum’s younger sister by two years, her baby sister, and she came straight away. The two of us spent quite a long time alone with Mum.
It was a life-changing experience in that she and Lowitja were Stolen Generation survivors, who grew up without their Aboriginal mother, and it felt “full circle” (because) I was there.
I was standing back as the adult, watching and comforting my Aunty.
I’ve got one child. A beautiful daughter, Ruby.But both my parents had now passed, as had Lowitja’s husband, so, in that moment, it really was “we’ve just got each other”.
She and I had always been very, very close.
I have so many photos of me with my Aunty and in every one of them I’m pretty much on her lap, or in her arms.
The next day we made a pact that we would look after each other for the rest of our lives.
The three of us – myself, Lowitja and Ruby – as a unit, would be rock solid, no matter what.
That followed through in the next 10 years as I took care of Lowitja until her passing (on February 4, 2024) and then moving forward in the work I am now doing.
It’s all legacy. Of her lifetime’s work, but also our family legacy because my mum was the first Aboriginal teacher in South Australia and Lowitja was the first Aboriginal trainee nurse at Royal Adelaide Hospital.
Two sisters who were incredible trailblazers, they not only opened doors, they held them open for others.
After Mum passed, I knew it was my turn to step into that role in whatever form that was going to be, but it was not going to be what I had been doing my whole career.
(Deb was previously in the music industry as a publicist for EMI, Virgin Records and Sony Music, before running her own consultancy.)
I now work as a senior project officer for Lowitja Institute, which is Australia’s only national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled health research institute. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lead the research that benefits their health and wellbeing outcomes.
Lowitja was very involved in the organisation from the beginning in 1997, when it was operating as the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal and Tropical Health.
In 2010, she gifted her name to it so that it became the Lowitja Institute. She asked the academics and researchers to be courageous and fearless in what they wanted to achieve and how they went about their work and became the patron.
My dream was to create a foundation that would be her legacy.In 2022, I started tapping a few people on the shoulder and having conversations about it.
On Aunty’s 90th birthday on August 1, 2022, we announced the establishment of the Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation. I now run its day-to-day operations, with philanthropic and government support.
I also wanted to create an online resource, where you could find out everything about Lowitja’s life, and to offer scholarships in her name. We offer them in nursing, because that’s where she started, but we will also be offering them in the public sector.
My aunt went on to have an incredible career in Aboriginal affairs as an activist and a formidable leader … always at the centre of all the big negotiations in this nation.
We would love for young people to be able to follow in her footsteps … to go to the UN or a leadership summit. Lowitja would be very proud because we would be continuing to open those doors and hold them open. She and my mum never had that.
They had to fight for absolutely everything they achieved.They were denied many times over.
When Aunty went for her first job interview at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, she wasn’t even allowed into the office. The matron made her stand out in the corridor. There were no doors held open.
The day Mum passed I knew that was the turning point, that my life would change to now follow in their footsteps. I’m proud to take it on. Proud that Aunty chose me. I think Mum’s probably proud too, up there, saying, “OK, well done – keep going!”
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