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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-07-02 Daily Xml
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Nayda, Mr Kwementyaye (Les)

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (15:39): Today, I rise to pay tribute to Aboriginal activist, Kwementyaye (Les) Nayda OAM, who died in Alice Springs in May at the age of 70. It is fitting that the contribution he made to our state and to understanding the vital nature of true reconciliation be acknowledged in this place.

A proud Eastern Arrernte elder, sadly he, like his mother and grandmother, was a member of the stolen generations and he lived as a young boy at the Gap Cottages outside Alice Springs. It was from here that Kwementyaye Nayda was taken away from his mother in 1954 at the age of 10, an experience which his family says shaped everything he did—it is tragic that he never saw her again.

He was sent from Alice Springs to St Francis Boys' Home in Semaphore which also housed many family members and other names now synonymous with Aboriginal activism (and, as it turns out, soccer), including Charles Perkins, Gordon Briscoe and John Moriarty. Kwementyaye also lived for almost 40 years in my electorate of Torrens in the suburb of Greenacres and was involved with the nearby Gaza Football Club where he and his wife Ann shared some enjoyable times.

Kwementyaye Nayda was the first Aboriginal person to serve on the South Australian Parole Board He also served as chair on the Aboriginal Housing Board, the Aboriginal Advancement Committee and the Special Community and Aboriginal Projects Board. In 1995 he was made a member of the Order of Australia. He held a number of senior positions across government agencies and was chief advisor on Aboriginal Affairs to the South Australian government.

When he retired after 30 years of service in 2004 he was acknowledged as the longest serving Aboriginal public servant in Australia. He is admired for his efforts across a wide range of areas, from education and employment to law and order, housing and land rights. While his cousin Charlie Perkins looked to the big picture of Aboriginal affairs working in the sphere of federal politics, his son Shane Nayda says his dad was more community focused and he wanted to help clean up his own backyard first.

Kwementyaye Nayda was involved with creating the Family Wellbeing program in the 1990s with a focus on the empowerment and personal development of Indigenous people through the sharing of their stories, discussing relationships and identifying goals for the future. He was also viewed as a key figure in the development of the Pitjantjatjara Land Rights Act of 1981.

Kwementyaye Nayda returned to Alice Springs in 2005 and tragically, less than a year later, he suffered a stroke from which he never recovered. A memorial service will be held this Friday, 4 July at 10.30am at the Glanville Function Centre, which was formerly the St Francis Boys' Home.

For his whole working life, Kwementyaye (Les) Nayda strived to make a difference for Aboriginal people and to ending the suffering he had both witnessed and experienced firsthand. His family believes it is appropriate to remember and reflect on his life at the place he was sent as a child in such traumatic circumstances.

He is survived by his longtime partner, Annie Ernst; children, Shane and Sharon; and grandchildren, Elliot and Christopher.

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