Up close, personal with awe-inspiring Lowitja O’Donoghue

The greatest Indigenous leader of the modern era, Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue, made progress where others could not. Now an exhibition tells her story in a deeply personal and engaging way.

Ruby Edwards and Deb Edwards in front of a portrait of Lowitja O’Donoghue and Pat Anderson by mural artist Matt Adnate. Picture: Jo Robinson

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In a bag containing the costume jewellery that Yankunytjatjara woman the late Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue liked to wear in the corridors of power, her niece Deb Edwards found the nursing pins issued to her when she became the first ­Aboriginal nurse at Royal Adelaide Hospital.

The greatest Indigenous leader of the modern era made progress where others could not. Her public policy work is admired across the political divide. Now an exhibition of Dr O’Donoghue’s extraordinary life and influence tells her story in a deeply personal and engaging way. Australians are invited to know her through some of the possessions she left behind and through family stories.

For the past five weeks, Ms ­Edwards has been leading tour groups through the exhibition, named LOWITJA - A Life of Leadership and Legacy at the Kerry Packer Civic Gallery within the University of South Australia’s Hawke Centre. She shares memories and they ask questions. It is an unconventional and popular way of learning a recent chapter of Australian history. Those nursing pins – worn with pride after Dr O’Donoghue perser­vered for a place as a trainee nurse – are part of the story. Visitors see a rare photograph of the serious young Dr O’Donoghue smiling in a bathing suit, and even doing a handstand. In another precious image, she is with her sister Amy, who was two years older and blazed the trail by becoming the first Aboriginal teacher in SA.

Lowitja O'Donoghue in swimsuit doing a handstand. Picture: Lowitja O’Donoghue Collection

The nursing pins on display. Picture: Deb Edwards

Ms Edwards, who curated the exhibition with her daughter, Ruby, as an act of love for the woman who gave so much to Australia and her people, said a few people surprised her by revealing they came to LOWITJA because Dr O’Donoghue was the nurse who delivered them.

Many school groups have visited. Others arrived with colleagues after their employer identified the exhibition as a good fit for the organisation’s Reconciliation Action Plan.

Ms Edwards believes the informality and intimacy of the exhibition is part of its power as a truth-telling project. “I think people learn more in that hour and a bit with me than they would reading a report, because you’re delivering it in a completely different way,” she said. “Just the language is different. It’s me sharing very open and vulnerable stories about my family. And I can see the looks on their faces every day when I’m doing these tours.”

The exhibition includes never-before-seen correspondence from Dr O’Donoghue’s archive, tracing her journey from Stolen Generations child to nurse, reformer and respected national figure. She rose from a domestic servant aged 16 to the chairperson of ATSIC in its first productive years. In the aftermath of the Mabo High Court ruling, Dr O’Donoghue was crucial to the negotiations that resulted in Australia’s native title laws.

South Austraolian Premier Peter Malinauskas viewing the exhibition. Picture: Jo Robinson

As she speaks about her aunt to visitors, Ms Edwards shares stories that illuminate Dr O’Donoghue’s character and daily life. In the boot of her car, she kept an overnight bag in case she had to go to hospital with no notice. And she always had a small travel kit: needle and thread, shoe polish and a bar of laundry soap for emergency clothes-washing in a hotel sink.

“She used to joke about it ... but she was a person who was very prepared and that came from a regimented mission life and carried through every aspect of how she conducted herself,” Ms Edwards said.

Dr O’Donoghue was separated from her mother at two and did not see her again for 33 years. She advanced in her work despite prejudice, including early on from a patient who refused to be cared for by an Aboriginal nurse.

“If I wasn’t truth-telling in the exhibition, she would be very unhappy with me ... she would say ‘What are you just putting a bunch of nice pictures on the walls for?’ ” Ms Edwards said.

The exhibition runs until July 25 and is a partnership between the Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation, the Lowitja Institute dedicated to health research and The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre at UniSA.