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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-25 Daily Xml
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RIDGWAY, ALMA

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:51): Last July in the Old Chamber, Premier Mike Rann presented the South Australian Aboriginal Elder of the Year Award to Alma Ridgway, so it is fitting that my contribution today on the life of this wonderful woman be made in this house, also on Kaurna land.

Three weeks ago on 2 March, Auntie Alma, who was born at Point Pearce Mission, passed away, aged 65. The Holy Rosary Church at Prospect was packed, and the overflow followed the service from the footpath. Hundreds of people travelled from all over the state to pay their last respects to a wonderful woman who had done so much for so many over many years. Representatives from all walks of life, many government departments and education centres were present.

Auntie Alma was born on 23 January 1944, the first of 11 children, to Sylvia and Charlie Agius. Like many of her contemporaries, she was forced to leave the mission to come to Adelaide to work in order to support her family back home on Yorke Peninsula. She went to work at the Northfield Infectious Diseases Hospital as a domestic. During that time Alma undertook formal training and gained a qualification in nursing, something that stood this nurturer and carer in good stead all her life.

Looking for bigger challenges, Alma then began a bridging course of training in community services at the then Aboriginal Community College in North Adelaide. On completion, she decided teaching was her calling and, despite the difficulties she faced in supporting her immediate and extended family, she gave 100 per cent, as usual, to all the competing demands.

In 1986 she became the first and only child of the family to achieve a tertiary qualification as a teacher. Studying at the then Underdale campus of UniSA, Alma studied full time while caring for her children, Katrina and Peter, and her niece and nephew, Natasha and Andrew. I am indebted to Katrina Power for background information on her mother for this contribution today.

Immediately after graduation, Alma began working at the Kaurna Plains Aboriginal School at Elizabeth, which remains the first and only metropolitan Aboriginal school in Australia. Already at the school was Auntie Alice Rigney, the first Aboriginal principal in Australia. Their legacy lives on in the wonderful foundation for success their students have enjoyed—increased numbers of them going on to complete year 12 and then to university.

Following the premature deaths of her parents, Charlie in 1983 at the age of 53 and her mother Sylvia at the age of 65 in 1991, Auntie Alma assumed the role of family matriarch. Around that time she became deputy principal at Kaurna Plains School and stayed there for 11 years until diagnosed with bowel cancer.

In 1999, arranging her chemotherapy treatments around her community work, she survived her battle with cancer. Auntie Alma then decided to go to work in the Department for Correctional Services to help the alarming over-representation of Aboriginal prisoners being incarcerated to become educated. She showed faith and gave them hope. She believed very strongly in rehabilitation and harm minimisation, and provided group and individual mental and wellbeing health therapy work to ensure that these human beings, disadvantaged by decades of systemic policy failure, would have a chance to realise their potential and improve their social, educational and economic status, going some way to extend the average life expectancy of Aboriginal women beyond 65 and Aboriginal men beyond 54.

Aboriginal women are 46 times more likely to die as a result of domestic violence, compared to non-Aboriginal women. This startling fact was behind Auntie Alma providing violent and sexual offenders with programs, and it was mainly men who were involved in these programs. She also facilitated and mediated restorative sessions for victims and perpetrators.

Whilst working with corrections, Auntie Alma became an insulin-dependent diabetic and was diagnosed with kidney failure. Unfazed, she continued to work full-time, regularly travelling to every prison in this state and then, after a busy day, she was forced to endure 4½ hour dialysis sessions three nights a week, often not coming home until after 9 o'clock. In November last year, she received a double kidney transplant, and she spent the last four months of her life in hospital. Ironically, the kidneys functioned well, but infectious complications cost her her life.

Auntie Alma was a silent achiever, and she used optimism and resilience to overcome or eliminate the many obstacles she faced in her life. This inspirational teacher, healer, mentor, colleague and confidante enjoyed mutually respectful relationships with black and white Australians. She never complained of life's injustices nor sought plaudits or accolades. Auntie Alma did what she did with love, compassion and understanding.

When Premier Rann announced that Alma was the NAIDOC Aboriginal Elder of the Year, this selfless woman was totally shocked, bewildered and embarrassed by this recognition of her contribution and dedication to her people and her community. She was the epitome of humility, and she felt herself almost an unworthy recipient, whilst many around her saw her as a legend in her own lifetime.

This stalwart within her own family and the Aboriginal mainstream community should be on this day and in this house recognised as the truly great, unique and wonderful South Australian Aboriginal woman she was whose life, work and legacy will be a priceless inheritance for the many generations of Aboriginal Australians to come. Alma is survived by her loving children, Katrina and Peter, and grandchildren, Kahlia, Taylor and Kiraki.

Time expired.

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