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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-12-01 Daily Xml
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Paul, Mr N.

Ms COOK (Hurtle Vale) (15:37): I will change the tone slightly. I would like to make some remarks in tribute to a gentleman and a friend, Noel Paul. Noel was a committed South Adelaide Football Club member and eight-year chair of the beloved Panther Club. He was a true believer and also a life member of the South Australian Labor Party.

From a very young age, Noel was not only loyal to his Panthers but heavily involved as a drinks steward and a scoreboard attendant during the days of the Panthers at St Marys. I would like to point out that in the Labor Party he was several different office bearers in the local sub-branch and at party office and a loyal trade unionist over many years with the CEPU postal division.

Noel was a role model. He provided selfless service and dedication to the South Adelaide Football Club in particular. Since the passing of Noel Paul, I have dedicated, along with the Panther Club, a memorial award that will recognise the virtues held by Noel Paul in another worthy member of the Panther Club annually, and this will carry on Noel's name in the Panthers.

My husband, Neil, and I would also like to place on record our deep thanks to Noel for his frequent messages of love and support for us ever since we lost our son, Sam, and his welcome encouragement of the work of the Sammy D Foundation. We will miss seeing Noel at the Panthers. My thoughts have been and are still with Jenny and Noel's family and friends and all our Panther Club volunteering members.

In acknowledging the sad passing of Noel, I would like to speak about Maxine McPherson. Maxine is the inaugural winner of the Noel Paul Award, and I was very pleased to present that to Maxine recently at the Panther Club Christmas break-up. Maxine is a stalwart of the local southern community and of our Panther Club. I am sure she does not mind me saying she is an octogenarian. Max still volunteers her time for fundraising activities and managing events and is currently the Secretary of the Panther Club and manager of the barbecue and the canteen. She is absolutely tireless.

For many decades, she served as marketing manager for the Panthers, and she ran such now frowned upon competitions, such as Miss South Adelaide. She also helped out and helped coach and run the cheerleaders, I understand. Everyone at South Adelaide knows and loves Maxine, and I want to thank her for her service and for what she has done and continues to do for the club, and congratulate her publicly on being the inaugural recipient of the Noel Paul Award.

I would like to also pay tribute to Kaurna Meyunna tribal woman Aunty Georgina Williams, a Senior Woman of Water. Sadly, Aunty Georgina passed away recently. She was a dear friend to many of us and a much appreciated guiding voice in our southern suburbs. If anyone has had the pleasure of watching a Welcome to Country ceremony by Aunty Georgina, they are left with no doubt—with the banging of the rocks and the summoning of the spirits from all corners of our community: from south, north, east and west. It stays in your heart, it reverberates through your soul and I will miss it.

Aunty Georgina, a strong activist, dedicated her life to her people and her culture but most of all to her family. She continually resolved to bridge the gap between understanding so there may be a future where First Nations people have true voice and can self-determine. History needs to rightly be recognised for its length and breadth, beyond 200 years of white settlement. If there was ever an event to support her land, she was there.

Recently, I watched the David Unaipon Award, where Aunty Georgina won an emerging talent award for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander writers for her work on Mekauwe = Tears Volume #1. These writings are a journey through her life. She was a poet, singer, writer, dancer, theatre director, mother, grandmother, aunty and elder we loved dearly. Rest easy, Aunty Georgina. Nukkada.

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