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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-05-16 Daily Xml
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LEVAI, MS A.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (11:46): I move:

That this house expresses its condolences to the family of Ms Amy Levai, the first Aboriginal person to qualify and work as a teacher in South Australia, and recognises—

(a) her courage and persistence in gaining recognition as a teacher;

(b) her unstinting dedication to teaching and the positive impact she has had on young people whom she taught over 35 years; and

(c) the important role she played in the Aboriginal community.

I rise today to pay tribute to one of our state's great educators and trailblazers, Amy Levai, who passed away recently. I acknowledge the presence in the chamber today of her sister, Lowitja O'Donoghue, and her daughter, Deb Edwards.

Amy was one of those inspiring teachers, remembered fondly long after their students graduated. She had a great affection for and affinity with children, so the decision to follow her passion into a career in teaching was an obvious choice but it was not an easy one. Following completion of her Early Childhood Certificate for kindergarten in 1950, Amy applied to study teaching at the Adelaide School of Teacher Training, but in the 1950s attitudes prevailed that we would find abhorrent today and Amy's bid to study teaching was dismissed. The position of the teacher's college was that Aboriginal people don't teach.

We remember that this was a time when restrictive controls on Indigenous people, including where they lived, were enshrined in legislation. Racism was overt and woven into every part of our society, including our state's political and legal systems and our educational and medical institutions. A legacy of this era's policy was the stolen generation. Children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, including Amy and her sister, Dr O'Donoghue, and their three siblings were forcibly removed from their mothers. These policies also stood in the way of Amy becoming a teacher and her sister, Lowitja, applying to study nursing. Neither woman would be deterred from pursuing their chosen career.

Through the courage and persistence of pioneers like Amy and her sister, barriers were slowly broken down and employment opportunities were rightfully extended to Indigenous people. Lowitja battled until she was eventually accepted as the first Aboriginal trainee nurse at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. She is now a much respected and powerful advocate for Indigenous Australians. Amy's application to study teaching took her seven years to achieve but she never gave up. She bided her time, gathering three years' experience as the director in a Western Australian kindy (Mount Margaret Mission), but she continued to push to be accepted into teacher training. She was finally accepted into training in 1957, becoming the first Aboriginal person to be trained and to teach in South Australia.

Teaching was a calling that she was compelled to follow, and the South Australian education department could not stand in her way. Teaching took Amy to schools across the city and country, including Eden Hills, Parkside, Williamstown—where my mother actually went to school—and North Adelaide Primary School, as well as the Aboriginal Kaurna Plains School.

The overwhelming message from former students and their parents is that Ms Levai was a warm, wise and wonderful teacher who nurtured all those in her care and instilled in them a love of learning. Her life was all about teaching and caring for children—those in her care, as well as her own children and stepchildren. Teaching was not so much a career as a vocation—a passion that never diminished.

In 1993, after a remarkable 35 years of teaching, Amy retired, although she strongly missed the classroom and the company of children. Amy's achievements and her service to the community were recognised in 1989, when she was named NAIDOC Aboriginal of the Year, and again in 1998, when she was awarded the NAIDOC Aboriginal Elder of the Year for South Australia.

In November 2012, the then minister for education and child development (Hon. Grace Portolesi) announced the Amy Levai Aboriginal Teaching Scholarship—10 scholarships to provide financial assistance for Aboriginal people studying to become teachers. On the announcement of the scholarships, Ms Levai said it was an honour to have a scholarship awarded in her name. She said, 'Teaching has been my life, it has been the thing I loved doing the most. To be able to give to children and help them to learn, grow and move forward is a very special opportunity.'

Amy's remarkable legacy of inspiring young people, including young Indigenous students, lives on through these scholarships and in the memories of all those whose lives she touched. Amy passed away on 29 March 2013, on Good Friday. My thoughts and condolences are with her family, friends and former students.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (11:51): I rise to second the motion on behalf of the South Australian Liberal Party, and I offer our most sincere condolences to the family of Amy Levai—a woman who has left an indelible mark on education in this state. I also acknowledge the attendance in the chamber today of her sister Lowitja O'Donoghue and her daughter Deb Edwards.

You may be familiar with the quote, 'A good teacher tells; a better teacher demonstrates; a great teacher inspires.' Amy Levai was that great teacher because Amy had the wonderful gift that resides in all great educators—of teaching not just from a book but also from her heart. You need only read the many tributes to her from former students to know that Amy was something very special. Former South Australian premier Dean Brown is among that privileged group. As an eager four-year-old student in Amy's class at the Jean Bonython Kindergarten at Belair, Dean has very fond memories of Amy. Dean remembers her as 'caring and thoughtful', a teacher who 'nurtured her pupils in a very loving manner'.

Dean says that at the time Belair was a very small and tight-knit community and everyone knew each other well. The kindergarten was a social hub for the neighbourhood. Dean's four brothers and sisters attended it, as did the five children next door to the Browns, and Amy Levai welcomed them all. Dean says, 'I thought she was terrific in the attention she showed to what we young kids were doing with arts, crafts and rough games outside.' In later life, Amy regularly told Dean that she was the person who put him on the right path in life—and we can all be very grateful for that!

But despite receiving such wonderful tributes, it must not be forgotten that Amy, as a young Aboriginal woman in the early 1950s, endured tremendous struggle to even set foot in a classroom. This was an era steeped in racism and prejudice, and the idea of allowing an Indigenous woman to train as a teacher was abhorrent to many at the time. Indeed, the Adelaide Teachers College, at that time the main centre for teacher training in this state, rejected her application many times.

But Amy Levai, like her sister Lowitja O'Donoghue, was a trailblazer, and the knockbacks she received only fuelled the fire in her belly to push for change and equality for all. Amy's persistence paid off in 1957—seven years later, mind you, after her first application—when she won a position as the first Indigenous teacher in the South Australian education department. From this time until her eventual retirement in 1993 Amy taught thousands of children, and over the years she amassed quite a collection of awards and accolades. But these glories, whilst richly deserved, never swayed Amy, who remained disarmingly modest and humble. Indeed, she never wavered from her life's goal and what she considered a privilege of educating young children. I close now with Amy's own words:

Teaching has been my life. To be able to give to children and help them to learn, grow and move forward is a very special opportunity.

On behalf of the Liberal Party in South Australia I extend our very sincere condolences to her family and to her friends.

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (11:55): Sir, I am sorry I was not in the chamber for the earlier comments, and I know some have spoken. I just want to put on the record how terribly grateful we are for aunty Amy and all the work she did for South Australia, particularly her kindness to the Florey Reconciliation Task Force. Our deep sympathy to her family.

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (11:56): I rise to support the motion. I did not know Amy, but I do know her sister Lowitja extremely well. If Amy was half as determined and persistent in achieving her goals as Lowitja is, it is no wonder that she achieved the wonderful things she did in life. The Leader of the Opposition and the Minister for Education have summed up the history of Amy Levai. The memories will always be there and her contribution will never be overlooked.

My mother was a primary school teacher and I was a chalkie for a little while. I would like to think that I inspired some of my students—I had to drive a number of them—and I know my mum has inspired her students, but a teacher like Amy Levai comes once in a lifetime. To be a model, a champion for Aboriginal people, is something that is very, very difficult now. You need to have that particular hard-nosed character to be able to do that, but doing it with compassion and doing it with empathy is something that people like Lowitja, and I know certainly Amy, would have done. I pass on my sympathies to Lowitja and to Amy's daughter, Deb. I hope that we never ever forget the contribution that people like Amy Levai have made to this state.

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (11:57): I will just make a brief contribution. I fully support this motion. Lowitja, as I have mentioned in here previously, I have known since the time I was a little boy. She used to come to our house when she was nursing at the Royal Adelaide, when she was nursing with Faith Coulthard, who I believe became Faith Thomas. I did not really know Amy at all well, not in the way that I know Lowitja, but from what I have heard from people who did know her, experienced her teaching, they speak of and have spoken of her in the highest possible terms.

I went to Flinders University at the time John Moriarty went there. He was the first Aboriginal graduate from Flinders University. People like John and Amy were in many ways pioneers, as were Lowitja and Faith in nursing Aboriginal people. I think they have set the pathway for others to follow their example. Their achievements have shown that Aboriginal people can achieve in all sorts of ways in the professions and elsewhere. I fully support this motion and express my condolences to Amy's extended family.

The Hon. L.R. BREUER (Giles) (11:59): I want to very briefly speak in tribute to Amy Levai and also to her sister Lowitja, who I see sitting there listening to us today, and to all those wonderful people who went through Colebrook House so many years ago, people who were taken from their families and placed there. I have had many dealings with those people over the years and from there emerged some absolutely incredible leaders for Aboriginal communities in South Australia.

For example, Lowitja, who was an outstanding Aboriginal representative throughout Australia, through ATSIC and so many organisations she has been involved with, and people like Audrey Kinnear, Maude and George Tongerie, Claire Colebrook, Danny Colson and so many others that I can name. They were people who overcame incredible odds, survived and did so much work for their people and Australia. We need to look to them as leaders and understand how they operated, and I hope that the young people who are coming on now will take note of them.

One of the problems we have in our society today—whether it is Aboriginal society, white society or whatever it is—is that young people often do not appreciate the efforts of the people who have gone before them. I am not saying this as a vested interest because I am old myself, but often they are not appreciated and they lose track of what has happened before them and the leaders that have gone before them.

I think there are incredible role models there for the younger generation of Aboriginal communities today who certainly in many cases need their help, support and wisdom. We have lost so many of those amazing people. This week I mentioned Kuminara Thompson from the APY lands, who was an incredible tjilpi in that area. He led that community for so many years and did so much for Aboriginal welfare.

Here today we are talking about Amy Levai, another pioneer and an incredible woman. How do we thank them? How do we get the young people to listen to them? It is going to be difficult, but we do appreciate what they have done and what Amy did and the role model that she was. I offer my sincere sympathy to her sisters and all those family members.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (12:01): I rise to join every member of this house in supporting the minister's motion here today. It is very important that we recognise Amy Levai in this way. It goes without saying that any teacher who has taught well and contributed to our society for 35 years deserves an enormous amount of appreciation. Of course, for somebody who faced the challenges just to be able to teach at the beginning of her career that Amy Levai did, she must have been an extraordinary person. She deserves far more appreciation for what she achieved and for what she then gave to the students whom she taught. She worked incredibly hard to get the right to contribute to our society, and that is quite a strange paradox in itself.

It is always hard for people who go first and break the mould, and we should always show appreciation and respect for them when they do that. It is only common sense and logical, when we have a fair and open society made up of a whole range of people from a whole range of backgrounds, that the people who teach them, from preschool all the way up to university, should also come from that wide range of backgrounds. It does not make any sense to have it any other way.

Let me place on the record my thanks to Amy Levai for being the person who made the effort to break the mould in this area, and I show my appreciation for people who do so in lots of different vocations in lots of different times, because if they do not stand up and do it then our society does not improve, and our society has improved because of Amy Levai.

Motion carried.

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