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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-08-09 Daily Xml
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Indigenous Leaders

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:15): Today, I want to put on record condolences on the passing of three special Indigenous people. The first is Dr G. Yunupingu, who passed away in late July. He was Australia's most prominent Indigenous musician and died at the age of only 46. He is remembered as a genius and wonderful human being.

He became generally known throughout all Australia after winning an ARIA award in 2008 and went on to sell millions of albums after learning to play the guitar upside down, as he was blind from birth and self-taught. He sang in the Yolngu language, hauntingly, and changed things forever. Some years ago, I heard him sing at the Opera House in Sydney at the Deadly Awards night, and superlatives are certainly not enough.

He had much illness in his life, contracting hepatitis B as a child and then suffering liver and kidney disease, but he did not let this stop him, and he performed all over the world in front of many world leaders. His death was preventable, and his friend Vaughan Williams is quoted as saying, 'It's a failure of all of us that we have lost such an amazing human being. I feel he was trapped in the same cycle of bad health that so many Indigenous people are trapped in.' May Dr G. Yunupingu's legacy be to see that the cycle ends. Our hearts go out to his family, his community and his many friends.

Next is an Adelaide man, Stephen Gadlabarti Goldsmith, who died suddenly aged 60 on 24 July. A Kaurna-Narungga man, Stephen's larger than life image greets travellers at the Adelaide Airport. He had a long association with the University of Adelaide, with Head of Linguistics Rob Amery saying Stevie's role as Director of Kaurna Language meant he was a 'central pillar of the whole team'. On a personal level, Stevie was always kind and supportive of my endeavours on behalf of Indigenous people. He was involved in many ceremonies, dance performances and welcomes, one very recently here in this very chamber. He played the yidaki (didgeridoo) and was not afraid to face the difficult truths of the past with a smile.

Professor John Carty said that Stevie had encouraged people to be really brave and 'really generous in the way that we tell stories'. Stevie recently had a role in The Secret River at the Adelaide Festival. He was a great advocate for reconciliation and his influence will be always remembered and felt into the future. Our sympathies go to his family, community and friends.

The final person I want to remember is Yami Lester, and I understand that the Premier gave a statement earlier here today. Yami was an Aboriginal elder, activist and leader who died at the age of 75. Yesterday, 500 people travelled to Walatina Station in South Australia's Far North for this wonderful man's state funeral. He is now at rest in the red soil of his homeland. Political leaders travelled from far and wide, and I know our Premier and leader attended to celebrate the life of this remarkable man.

A proud Yankunytjatjara man, his life was one of achievement won with courage in the face of many hardships. It is perhaps as an anti-nuclear campaigner that most of us came to know him, after he was blinded by the black mists from Maralinga in the 1950s. But before that, in his early days, he was a legendary stockman with a real gift. Fate took a hand, though, and his life was spent fighting, not riding, challenging all who stood in the way of his fight for those affected by the testing as well as championing land rights. I have been privileged to visit Anangu land and know that it is worth fighting for.

The McClelland royal commission led to a long overdue clean-up of the land and some compensation for the Maralinga Tjarutja people. I quote from Nicola Gage's ABC report when I tell this house that Yami's work was pivotal in the hand back of Uluru and acknowledged in his receipt of an Order of Australia medal. Our thoughts are with his family, community and friends in this time of sadness and loss.

While attending the Hiroshima Day Commemoration in Peace Park on Saturday, it was my honour to speak about Yami at the request of the Graham F. Smith Peace Foundation which, along with the Romero Company, works for peace here in Adelaide. All present remembered Yami and spoke of the recent trip by his daughter Karina Lester to a UN conference in New York to tell her father's story, which many there already knew, and to promote a ban on nuclear weapons—something evermore important in a world that still speaks of such a threat as being imminent and almost unavoidable.

We must do as Yami did: raise our voices and do our bit. Schools in Florey and I hope more widely are becoming active for peace, and the message will spread from our young people. Groups like the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom will work with the Graham F. Smith Peace Foundation and Romeros to unite all like-minded people, and I understand that the Red Cross also had an event here in Adelaide last weekend.

Solidarity is strength, and we must all keep united in efforts to the memory of these three men in making the world a safer place—something I know they would all want us to do.

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