Dr Josie Douglas, General Manager of Professional Services at the Central Land Council, gave this acceptance speech on behalf of Dr Pat Turner AM for the National NAIDOC Award - Person of the Year.

Tonight, we gather on Mparntwe Country to honour a truly extraordinary Aboriginal woman.

A woman whose life has been grounded in culture, family and an unwavering commitment to our people.

It is an enormous privilege to accept this award on behalf of Dr Pat Turner, NAIDOC Person of the Year, here on her own Country.

Pat is not able to be with us tonight. She is taking a well-earned rest after a lifetime of remarkable service.

While we all wish she could be here, there is something fitting about us gathering as a community to honour her, because community, family and Country are where Pat's story begins.

And they have remained at the heart of her life, her leadership and everything she has done for our people.

Growing up in Mparntwe as the daughter of an Arrernte father and a Gurdanji mother, Pat learned early both the strength of Aboriginal families and the injustices our people faced.

When she was just 11 years old, her father was killed in a workplace accident. Her family was thrust into hardship, and she watched her mother navigate a welfare system that too often questioned the worth of Aboriginal people.

Pat has always spoken about the strength of her mother and the Aboriginal women around her: women who held families together, cared for their communities and exercised authority despite every obstacle placed before them.

You can see their influence in the leader Pat became.

Throughout her life, Pat has had a very clear understanding of power: who has it, who doesn't, and the responsibility that comes with it.

She began her career in the Australian Public Service in Alice Springs as a switchboard operator.

Even then, Pat was Pat.

When the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs visited town, she volunteered to be his driver so she could tell him directly what was really happening on the ground.

That determination to get Aboriginal voices directly to the people making decisions has followed Pat throughout her life.

From that switchboard, she became one of the most senior Aboriginal public servants in the country.

As Deputy Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, through ATSIC and the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Pat walked into the places where decisions were being made and made sure our voices and interests were heard.

But Pat's contribution extends far beyond government.

She has spent her life building and strengthening the institutions that give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people voice, power and control over our own lives.

You can see that in NITV.

Pat understood the power of our people telling our own stories, in our own voices.

In 2007, she became the inaugural CEO of National Indigenous Television and helped build a national television service from the back patio of her home here in Alice Springs - with a laptop, a mobile phone, a huge vision and, I suspect, a fairly clear expectation that everyone else would keep up.

NITV created a national platform where our stories, cultures, languages and perspectives could be seen and heard on our own terms, and where our children could see themselves, their families and their communities reflected back at them.

That same belief in the strength and authority of our own people and organisations has run through everything Pat has done.

She carried it into NACCHO and her fierce advocacy for Aboriginal community-controlled health.

And she carried it into one of her greatest achievements - bringing together the Coalition of Peaks.

Pat helped build the biggest coming together of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled sector in our history.

She united organisations from across the country, across different communities, sectors and interests, around a shared purpose: to drive change for our people.

Today, the Coalition of Peaks brings together more than 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations and their representatives.

That kind of unity takes trust, relationships and an ability to bring people with you while keeping everyone focused on what matters most.

And Pat took that collective strength to the table with governments.

Under her leadership, our organisations went from being consulted on Closing the Gap to becoming formal partners in shaping it.

The National Agreement on Closing the Gap changed the relationship, recognising that our people and our organisations must share in the decisions that affect our lives.

That is an extraordinary legacy.

Through all of it, Pat has been formidable.

She knows her history. She knows the evidence. She remembers every promise. And she has never hesitated to speak truth to power.

There are Prime Ministers, Ministers, departmental secretaries, public servants, and probably quite a few Aboriginal leaders, who know what it feels like to sit across the table from Pat Turner when she thinks you can do better.

If a government made a commitment, Pat expected it to be delivered.

If our people weren't at the table, Pat wanted to know why.

And if you told Pat you were going to do something, you had better do it. Because she would remember.

She demanded accountability from governments and from our own organisations and leaders, because our people deserved nothing less.

But the thing about Pat is that the woman who remembered every missed government commitment also somehow remembered everyone's birthdays.

She remembered your partner's name. She knew what your kids were doing. She asked after your mum and checked in on people's grandkids.

That is Pat.

Her strength and her kindness come from the same place: a deep love of our people, a belief in justice and a sense of responsibility to those around her.

And perhaps that is Pat's greatest lesson about leadership.

Use whatever power and influence you have to make things better for our people, and make the path a little easier for those coming behind you.

Tonight, we honour an extraordinary public servant, advocate and institution-builder, but above all, an extraordinary Aboriginal woman.

Pat, you have strengthened our organisations, united our people, opened doors for generations of leaders and changed this country for the better.

And you have cared deeply for the people walking beside you while you did it.

On behalf of everyone you have mentored, challenged, encouraged - and occasionally scared into lifting their game - thank you.

Congratulations, Pat, on being named NAIDOC Person of the Year.

We are enormously proud of you.

We love you.

And we thank you for a lifetime of service to our people.