MR KUNMANARA LANGKA PETER

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (14:22): I seek leave to read a ministerial statement made by the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation in the other place about Mr Kunmanara Langka Peter.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: On behalf of the house I would like to acknowledge the passing of Mr Kunmanara Langka Peter, a Pitjantjatjara elder, ngangkari (or healing hands), teacher and leader, who was taken from us suddenly on 3 February 2012.

We extend sincere condolences to his family and to Anangu Tjuta (meaning all people of the APY lands), and I would also like to welcome and acknowledge family members and friends who are present and were in the house when the minister read his statement.

Mr Kunmanara Peter was born around 1940 in the bush near Shirley Well, a Fregon community in the APY lands. He was given ngangkari powers from his grandfather, Peter, who worked as a stockman as well as a ngangkari. He learnt the skills of a ngangkari by studying the work of his three grandfathers, his father and other family members who were also ngangkari.

Beginning school at Ernabella Mission as a nine or 10-year-old boy, he returned to Shirley Well over summer to continue working with this grandfathers. As a young man he worked as a stockman at Kenmore Park Station, a life that he loved very much. I understand that throughout his life he was well known for being immaculately dressed in his impressive cowboy shirts, boots and hats.

Mr Kunmanara Peter married in the 1950s and he and his wife had two sons and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren followed. He has a large extended family in the APY lands and cross-border area, as well as many other relatives living to the south of the lands. In the 1970s and 1980s when Anangu were fighting to regain their land, Mr Kunmanara Peter worked hard to establish services at Fregon community, leading many community initiatives involving better governance, employment and education for his people.

He worked as a ngangkari throughout his life and had a longstanding relationship with the Nganampa Health Council, especially its Fregon Clinic. He was never too tired to help and indicated he did this work because it made him happy to see sick people get better, work which he carried out with warmth, humour and charisma. He was sought by the NPY Women's Council as the number one ngangkari in the region and in 1999 was one of the first to work full-time as a ngangkari across Australia, his work taking him to many regions from Warburton and Ceduna in the west, to Finke in the east and to Port Lincoln in the south. He also visited Anangu in hospitals, gaols, nursing homes, mental health units and hostels in Alice Springs, Port Augusta, Adelaide and Kalgoorlie.

Mr Kunmanara Peter believed very strongly that the best way to help Anangu with health problems was by Ngangkari and doctors and nurses working together. As a lifetime practitioner as a Ngangkari, Mr Kunmanara Peter's work accomplished a high degree of respect for cultural knowledge and practice. This contributed to an important exchange among colleagues across various disciplines of healing, particularly for Ngangkari, medical doctors and mental health practitioners and councillors.

Mr Kunmanara Peter developed a strong relationship with the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association, supporting the Indigenous doctors and medical students and travelling with them to Canada, New Zealand and Hawaii, where he met Indigenous doctors from other parts of the world. Mr Kunmanara Peter also travelled to Canada and Alaska to examine issues around petrol sniffing in other indigenous communities.

Mr Kunmanara Peter was the embodiment of reconciliation. He was regarded as a master of mediation and reconciliation, being able to build a bridge of understanding for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. He is held in the highest regard by the Aboriginal community and by medical professionals nationally and internationally. He is also held in the highest regard by Aboriginal people for his unparalleled healing abilities and for driving a major shift in the understanding and acceptance of Aboriginal traditional healing through his public speaking and educational work.

Mr Kunmanara Peter's funeral was held at the Fregon community in March this year, a ceremony at which the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation was present. I add that I was also in attendance as Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion. Mr Kunmanara Peter will be lovingly remembered by his family and many others, and our thoughts are with those who mourn the loss of their loved one.