The following article contains the image and name of an Aboriginal person who has passed away. National Indigenous Times has sought permission to use Aunty Frances Gallagher's name and image in line with her family's wishes.
Highly respected Gunditjmara Elder Aunty Frances Gallagher has died, aged 99, leaving behind a legacy of fierce advocacy, community leadership and decades of service to Aboriginal people across Victoria.
The adored mother of 10 — including Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation chief executive Dr Jill Gallagher — grew up during an era when Aboriginal people were denied their rights to culture and language. Despite those injustices, she devoted her life to making Victoria and the broader Aboriginal community a better place.
A proud grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother, Aunty Frances was born in Bendigo in 1926, one of Violet Ella Winters' eight children. Across nearly a century, she overcame profound hardship and helped shape stronger futures for Aboriginal families and communities.
Aunty Frances was among the wave of Aboriginal leaders and community members in the 1970s and 1980s who drove the establishment of Aboriginal Community-controlled health services in Victoria, embracing the opportunity to work in culturally safe organisations run by Aboriginal people, for Aboriginal people.
Enduring the trauma of racist government policies which removed six of her children, she spent part of her early life living on the Framlingham mission in western Victoria.
From the age of 16 she faced job insecurity while travelling across Gunaikurnai Country for seasonal vegetable-picking work, as many Aboriginal families did at the time.
Later, after her first husband was killed in a road accident and was widowed and left to raise eight children, Aunty Frances moved to Fitzroy, where she found work in a Collingwood factory whilst facing racist and discriminatory policies.
Her commitment to supporting vulnerable Aboriginal women and children led her to work at Elizabeth Hoffman House, assisting those escaping violence and homelessness, and at the Marg Tucker Hostel, supporting young women who had experienced — or were at risk of entering — the criminal justice system and losing their children.
In 1982, at the age of 60, she enrolled in the newly established Koori Kollij, a Victorian Aboriginal Health Service-commissioned college created to train Aboriginal community health workers.
Her son Trevor Gallagher reflected in 2021: "While the work was not always easy, Aunty Frances delighted in encouraging a sense of personal dignity and pride, while offering understanding and sympathy."
Aunty Frances also played a leading role in the development of Aboriginal Community Elderly Services (ACES), campaigning alongside her friend Iris Lovett-Gardiner and others for the creation of a culturally appropriate aged care facility for Elders. The service was eventually established in Brunswick in 1991.
She later served on the ACES board and, in later life, became a resident herself.
In 2004, she became one of the first Elders to serve on the Broadmeadows Koori Court, where she worked to strengthen offenders' sense of self-worth while reinforcing their responsibilities to family and Community.
Her work ethic and creativity remained undiminished in later years. In her eighties, she completed a Diploma in Visual Arts at RMIT, with her works later featured in numerous exhibitions.
Curator Sharon West said her art featured "large and colourful landscape narratives of Gunditjamara life, ranging from pre-colonisation camp sites to the Framingham Mission, where she spent her early years".
"Aunty Frances is a passionate for the welfare of the land, and she continues to inspire people of all ages with her continuing evolution and zeal for life," she said.
Her lifetime of contribution was formally recognised when she was inducted into the Aboriginal Honour Roll in 2016 and later awarded the Ageing Well Award at the 2021 Victorian Senior of the Year Awards.
In a statement, the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation said it would remember Aunty Frances for her "staunch spirit, her compassionate heart, and for standing up for what was right - calling out injustice and discrimination whenever she saw it".
"As we honour her life, VACCHO remains committed to carrying forward her wisdom, leadership, strength, and unwavering commitment to Community," they said.
