NAIDOC Awards

The Hon. T.T. NGO (14:52): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. Will the minister inform the council about the Dr Alice Rigney award presented at the 2022 NAIDOC Awards luncheon?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Attorney-General, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:52): I thank the honourable member for his question and his continued interest in the area of Aboriginal affairs. I note that I ran into the honourable member at today's Lord Mayor's NAIDOC reception, along with the shadow attorney-general, the member for Heysen, Josh Teague, in the other place and South Australia's newest senator, Senator Kerrynne Liddle, who was in attendance at the Lord Mayor's NAIDOC event today.

I know the Hon. Tung Ngo has a very longstanding and significant interest in this area and has also been on and off Chair of the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Committee many times over recent decades. As I outlined yesterday in this council, on Monday this week, the annual NAIDOC Awards were held at the Adelaide Convention Centre. These awards provide the opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the contribution Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have made to our community.

I spoke yesterday about the male winner of the Premier's NAIDOC Award for 2022, Uncle Jeffrey Newchurch. However, I want to inform the chamber now of the Dr Alice Rigney award, which recognises a young Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person dedicated to their education in their senior years of school, either year 10, 11 or 12. The person the award is named after, Dr Alice Rigney, or Alitya Rigney, was born at Point Pearce on Yorke Peninsula and was a trailblazing educationalist and education advocate.

Dr Rigney excelled in a number of leadership positions, including being the first female Aboriginal school principal anywhere in Australia and one of the first Aboriginal employees of the South Australian education department. Dr Rigney was committed to the preservation of Aboriginal languages and was instrumental in the revival of the Kaurna language, introducing the teaching of the Kaurna language into the curriculum when she was principal of the Kaurna Plains School in Elizabeth.

An elder and a matriarch of the Kaurna and Narungga nations, it is estimated that Dr Rigney taught in excess of 5,000 Aboriginal students during her lifetime, whilst mentoring and inspiring many more. After a career of teaching, Dr Rigney was the ambassador for the commonwealth government's National Indigenous English Literacy and Numeracy Strategy and played an important role on South Australia's Guardianship Board and the Aboriginal Education, Training and Advisory Committee.

Dr Rigney's pioneering achievements were recognised by being awarded South Australia's NAIDOC Elder of the Year in 1997, an Australia Day Public Service Medal for service to Indigenous education in 1991 and receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of South Australia in 1998. Dr Rigney's son, Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney, stated that his mother's philosophy was: 'The poor don't lack intelligence, whether they are black or white, they lack opportunity, and all children, regardless of background, deserve a quality education.'

Dr Rigney's legacy continues past the direct impact she had on Aboriginal people's lives and is recognised in this award. This year, the 2022 SA NAIDOC Award of the Dr Alice Rigney Prize was awarded to Peyton Aspel, a year 12 student from Avenues College, who is on track to complete a SACE and is an active participant in cultural programs at her school. She is also a talented sportswoman and is part of the SAASTA elite netball academy. I congratulate Peyton on receiving this award. It is a credit to her and her family's hard work and commitment to her education. I wish her the best of luck for completing her SACE and the next steps in her journey.