A new centre commemorating the life of Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue AC CBE DSG will open in Canberra on Wednesday at the Australian National University.
The Yankunytjatjara woman and one of Australia's most respected and prominent Aboriginal leaders passed away peacefully at the age of 91 on Kaurna Country, Adelaide, last year.
Her life will be celebrated with the opening of the Lowitja O'Donoghue Cultural Centre.
Deb Edwards, Dr O'Donoghue's niece and Head of the Lowitja O'Donoghue Foundation said the family were "very proud".
"Our Auntie spent many years working and living in Canberra, and during that time was honoured to become the University's first Aboriginal person to be awarded an honorary doctorate," she said.
"Her incredible legacy, and lifelong dedication to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, is now reflected through the naming of the Cultural Centre, where community can gather together, enthused with a feeling of unity, connection and culture, as Dr O'Donoghue always encouraged."
The naming event will include addresses by Ms Edwards and Governor General Sam Mostyn.
Described by her associates and colleagues as "the greatest Aboriginal leader of the modern era" and "a powerful and unrelenting advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people," Dr Donoghue was born on De Rose Hill on the APY Lands (Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara) before she was removed from her mother at the age of two and taken to Colebrook Children's Home in South Australia's Flinders Ranges.
Throughout decades working in health and Aboriginal Affairs, she devoted her life to the betterment of her people, becoming the first Aboriginal person permitted to train as a nurse at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
She campaigned for the 1967 referendum that changed the constitution to count Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia's population and make laws for them, and continued her advocacy, later being made a member of the Order of Australia in 1977.
She was the founding chairperson of the National Aboriginal Conference, and in 1984 was named Australian of the Year. Dr O'Donoghue became the inaugural chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in 1990.
She later played a key role in negotiating and drafting Native Title legislation in Australia that arose from the High Court's historic Mabo decision and advised Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on the apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, particularly the stolen generation, in 2008.
The non-profit Lowitja O'Donoghue Foundation was set up in 2022 to continue her legacy.
ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Genevieve Bell said the naming of the ANU Cultural Centre honoured Dr O'Donoghue's life, leadership, and legacy.
"Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue was a woman of courage, grace and dignity," Professor Bell said.
"Her achievements were many but, as she would often stress to colleagues, she was never satisfied as there was always so much more work to be done.
"It's in this spirit of constant improvement and striving that we are honoured to bestow her name on our Cultural Centre here at ANU – a significant building at the heart of our campus which brings our community together."
Dr O'Donoghue will be the first Aboriginal person, and third woman, to be recognised with the naming of a building at ANU, in recognition of her extraordinary life and ongoing impact.
At her State memorial service last year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to Dr O'Donoghue's legacy, describing her as "one of the great rocks around which the river of our history has gently bent".
An exhibition featuring a selection of Dr O'Donoghue's landmark speeches and media interviews, historic items of personal clothing and awards, items of cultural and political significance, newspaper clippings and quotes, and never-before-seen photographs, letters, and reports, will be held at the University of South Australia in Adelaide, from 4 June to 25 July this year.
