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Indigenous leader calls for greater effort

By Maria Moscaritolo

28 May 2008 - INDIGENOUS leader Lowitja O'Donoghue last night called on churches to play a bigger role in reconciliation with the Stolen Generations.

In her final speech before retiring from public debate, she said the legacy of past removal policies was hampering present intervention efforts.

"Many of my people have deep-seated fears about being removed from their communities by white fellas," she said in her public lecture at St Peter's Anglican Cathedral. "It is a real issue in relation to welfare interventions and imprisonment.

"It is partly why a code of silence surrounds abuse in Aboriginal communities, because people do not want to see the fracturing of families and communities, yet again."

Professor O'Donoghue, who was taken from her mother with her four siblings, acknowledged that the churches had made significant efforts to right their wrongs but said they needed

to make "a much stronger commitment".

"I ask you to imagine what you would want history to be reporting about your actions and achievements in 10 years' time," she said.

Professor O'Donoghue said last night's speech was her "swansong".

The 75-year-old, who has increasingly declined to become involved in debate on Aboriginal issues, plans to retire from public speaking.

She said addressing indigenous poverty was "absolutely fundamental for genuine reconciliation" - a point World Vision chief the Rev Tim Costello will address tonight when he delivers the second annual Lowitja O'Donoghue Oration at Bonython Hall.

In his speech, Mr Costello will argue that home ownership, education and employment are the main keys to lifting indigenous health and life expectancy.

Mr Costello, who has returned recently from cyclone-ravaged Burma, said he was shocked to learn its oppressed and poverty-stricken population had a better life expectancy than Australia's indigenous people.

"The average male life expectancy in Myanmar is 60 years, while for indigenous Australian males it is even less at 58 years," he will tell his audience tonight.

"To think we have a patch of Myanmar in our backyard brings to me a brutal reality that this simply cannot be tolerated in a developed nation."

Mr Costello said the poverty divide between some indigenous communities and their neighbouring areas (such as mining towns) was "acute to the extreme".

"If we are to bridge the gap in life expectancy, we have to bridge the gap in socio-economic status, especially with education and employment levels," he will say.

Source: The Adelaide Advertiser

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