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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-11-25 Daily Xml
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COPLEY, MR I.

Ms SIMMONS (Morialta) (16:17): I rise today to talk about one of my constituents and close personal friend, Ivan Copley (Tiwu is his Aboriginal name), who has just been awarded the honour of being the South Australian finalist in the Australian of the Year Awards 2009. This was against an auspicious field of finalists, including Professor Chris Burrell AO, whom I also know, Dr Damien Mead and Dr Ross Philpot OAM—all very worthy finalists.

I believe we are very fortunate to have Ivan representing our state. His citation in the Australian of the Year book states:

Ivan Copley is a committed man of Aboriginal descent from the Peramangk people of the Adelaide Hills, the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains, and the Minang people of Western Australia. He has devoted his life to trying to achieve reconciliation and better outcomes for indigenous Australians. As founder and Chair of the Campbelltown Council Reconciliation Committee he has achieved excellent results, including the signing of a Statement of Reconciliation by the Mayor [Simon Brewer], CEO of the council [Paul Di Iulio] and himself.

Through his work with Rotary he established the first clean drinking water purifier in the Aboriginal community of Leigh Creek, having raised the funds for it himself. Whilst at the Australian Bureau of Statistics he arranged for second-hand computers to be installed in Aboriginal communities without computer access.

Recently he established an Aboriginal funeral fund to assist family members to travel to funerals. He raises money for the fund through sales of merchandise in his spare time. These are just a few of the many ways in which Ivan is putting his heart and soul into bettering his community. He has been described as a bridge for all peoples.

I have always found Ivan to be a very humble man, a quiet achiever who is always more than ready to share his extensive knowledge with anyone who shows an interest in his proud collection of Aboriginal information, culture and history.

His collection spans 35 years, from a time when he wanted to go back and discover his own family tree and Aboriginal background. His collection is now one of the biggest personally owned records of Aboriginal history in South Australia, and he recently told the local Messenger that he hopes to ultimately compile the information to help others in the Aboriginal community track their own descendants.

I sit on the Reconciliation Board of SA , as does the member for Morphett, with Ivan I have also been privileged to travel with him to the north of our state, to Leigh Creek, Copley, Iga Warta and Nepabunna. He not only knows all these communities intimately but he is also very well thought of in them.

He is very proud of his work with the Australian Bureau of Statistics, where his role is to ensure that accurate information is gathered about Aboriginal people in South Australia and that this information is handed back to the communities so that they can use this data for their own benefit. He believes that helping the local communities read the data properly will help them to become more self-governed, which is one of his wishes for the future.

I was privileged to be with Ivan and his beautiful and supportive wife, Mia, when the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, made the formal apology to indigenous Australians. We were in Elder Park watching the big screen, and we were all very emotional. Ivan said that he had spent his whole life waiting to hear that one word—sorry. I feel very proud to have worked alongside Ivan for many years and to call him and Mia friends. I congratulate him on this fantastic and well-deserved achievement.

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