Kevin Andrews’ treasured message stick to return home

For Margaret Andrews honouring her late husband, former Liberal minister Kevin Andrews, meant sending one of his most treasured possessions home.

Margaret Andrews, wife of late Liberal MP Kevin Andrews hands Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price the message stick. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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For Margaret Andrews, honouring her late husband and former Liberal minister Kevin Andrews meant sending one of his most treasured possessions home.

Ms Andrews presented Coalition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price with a message stick on Wednesday that the Yolngu people of East Arnhem Land presented to her husband almost 30 years ago to commend him for his advocacy against euthanasia.

The then-backbencher introduced a private members bill making voluntary assisted dying illegal in the NT, which would become law a year after he was presented with the message stick in 1996.

The Yolngu people presented Mr Andrews, a staunch Catholic and opponent to voluntary assisted dying, with the letter stick outside Parliament House.

The group of East Arnhem Land people were opposed to the NT government’s decision to legalise euthanasia in 1995.

A poster explaining the meaning of the message stick — a form of ancient communication which the Yolngu nation use to communicate to diplomatic partners or parliaments — said the NT VAD scheme was an “illegal action of sorcery punishable at law”.

Ms Andrews said her husband, who died aged 69 in December following a battle with cancer, had treasured the message stick but she wanted to return it to the Aboriginal community.

She presented it to Senator Price at Parliament House on Wednesday in the hope the Indigenous NT Senator would be able to find a culturally appropriate home for it.

“Kevin treasured the letter stick, and he was proud of the representations he made of the Aboriginal people, some of whom were very afraid of going into hospital,” she said.

“They were afraid that their people might be euthanised.

“So Kevin treasured it, and sadly, he recently passed away, and I thought the letter stick could come back to the Aboriginal community from where it came.”

Senator Price said she was “honoured” to be entrusted with the message stick, and she planned to place it as a centrepiece in her office until a permanent home could be found in a museum.

“A lot of Aboriginal people in this debate felt quite concerned about (euthanasia),” Senator Price said. “There are many who still are concerned about it, and they don’t often get their voices heard.

“Those in favour of voluntary assisted dying, there are some that are quite aggressive in their approach. And so I think it’s always important to be able to hear from the little people.”