Neville Bonner - Senator, Australian Parliament
(28 March 1922 - 5 February 1999)
Introduction
Quick Facts
Name: Neville Bonner
Born: Ukerebagh Island, 28 March,1922
Died: Ipswich, 5 February 1999
Australian of the Year 1979
First Indigenous member of the Commonwealth Parliament
Liberal Party Senator for Queensland, 1971–1983
Member of the Board of the ABC, 1983–1991
(Source: Google Maps - showing Ukerebagh
Island in the Tweed River at Tweed Heads)
From the 1920s to the
1960s, Ukerebagh Island was home to Aboriginal people of the
traditional Minjungbal Aboriginal Nation as well as other Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people who had come to work in the Tweed
area. The settlement created a sense of community for all Aboriginal
people and provided an isolated environment in which children could
be taught about their culture. Neville Bonner, who was the first
Indigenous member of the Australian Parliament (from 1971 to 1983)
was born on Ukerebagh Island in 1922.
The NSW Aborigines Protection Board declared the island an
Aboriginal Reserve in 1927. As a reserve, the settlement was
serviced with government rations and missionaries would also
frequently visit. Not all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people moved to Ukerebagh Island by choice, as some were herded
there by the local police in an effort to keep them from nearby
white settlements. When the Aboriginal Reserve was revoked in 1951,
some families continued to live on the island up until the early
1970s. In the late 1970s, local Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people protested against proposed developments in the area,
and succeeded in having Ukerebagh Island protected. In 1980 the area
was gazetted as the Ukerebagh Island Nature Reserve.
Today local Aboriginal people continue to visit the island, and go
there to teach young children about Aboriginal culture, history, and
how to use the available resources. (Source:
NSW Department of the Environment)
Neville Bonner became the first Aboriginal person in Federal Parliament,
representing Queensland as a Liberal Party Senator from 1971 to 1983.
"Bonner was the son of an Aboriginal mother of the Jagera people and an
English father whom he never knew. He was born on an island in the Tweed
River in northern New South Wales. At the time Aboriginal people were not
allowed into town at night so Bonner’s mother could not go to the hospital
to give birth. Bonner said ‘She gave birth to me…under the palm tree…on a
government-issued blanket’.
The Palm Tree that Neville was born under
Neville Bonner had a limited education and worked in labouring jobs. After
he married he lived on Palm Island near Townsville and worked to help his
community. Bonner was convinced little would change for Indigenous
Australians unless they were represented in parliament. He said ,‘You've got
to get into the system, work through the system and make changes.’
Neville Bonner joined the Liberal Party and in 1971 was chosen to fill a
Senate vacancy. He celebrated his first parliamentary speech with a
boomerang throwing display on the lawns of Parliament House. Bonner was a
Senator for 12 years and worked on Indigenous and social welfare issues. He
did not always agree with his party’s policies and several times crossed the
floor and voted with the Opposition. Disillusioned with the way he had been
treated, Bonner resigned from the Liberal Party in 1983 and ran for the
Senate as an Independent but was unsuccessful. He retired from politics, but
not from public life.
Neville Bonner continued to raise awareness of Indigenous and welfare
issues. He worked with Amnesty International, the Indigenous Advisory
Council and other organisations to improve conditions for Indigenous people.
Neville Bonner was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Griffith University,
and, after his death in 1999, the
Neville Bonner Memorial Scholarship was established by the Australian
National University.
In 2004, the federal electorate of Bonner, in Queensland, was named in his
honour." (Source: Civics and Citizenship)
In 1984 Neville Bonner was awarded the Officer of the Order of Australia. He
died in 1999.
"Neville Bonner's life is a study not
only of courage, conscience and compassion
in the face of extraordinary adversity,
but also of personal and national reconciliation." (Source: ANU)
Education:
Like many Indigenous children of his age he had little
formal schooling, leaving after he had attained the third grade at the age
of fifteen.
Employment & Training:
Neville worked as a rural labourer on properties
across Queensland until 1946, when he commenced employment at the Palm
Island Aboriginal settlement. He rose to the position of assistant
settlement overseer on Palm Island.
Neville Bonner started his working life as a ringbarker, canecutter and
stockman. He spent 16 years on the repressive Palm Island Aboriginal Reserve
where he learned many of the skills that would help him later as a
politician.
Neville Bonner became the first Aboriginal person in
Federal Parliament, representing Queensland as a Liberal Party Senator from
1971 to 1983.
Experiences:
In 1960, Bonner moved to Ipswich where he became
associated with the One People Australia League (OPAL), a moderate
Aboriginal rights organisation where he served as one of the league’s
directors for several years.
Bonner joined the Liberal Party and in 1971 he became the
first Aboriginal person to sit in the Commonwealth parliament when he was
chosen to fill a vacancy in the Senate caused by the resignation of a
Liberal senator for Queensland. He was subsequently returned at elections
held in 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1980.
Opportunities:
Bonner was a respected commentator on Indigenous issues
and served on numerous Senate and Parliamentary Committees.
He also served as the parliamentary representative on the
Council of the then Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (now the
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
[AIATSIS]).
Senator Bonner had a very auspicious and
distinguished career in the Senate and by the power of his argument,
and the fact that he crossed the floor on many occasions [34] to get
a better deal for the causes he espoused, he was able to implement a
number of changes for the benefit of Australians. As Neville Bonner
said in his maiden speech on 8 September 1971:
I assure honourable senators that I have not attended a
university or a high school and, for that matter, I do not know that
I can say that I have spent very much time at a primary school. But
this does not mean that as a Senator from Queensland I am not able
to cope. I have graduated through the university of hard knocks. My
teacher was experience. However, I shall play the role which my
State of Queensland, my race, my background, my political beliefs,
my knowledge of men and circumstances dictate. This I shall do,
through the grace of God, to the benefit of all Australians.
As he concluded his maiden speech:
I look forward to my association with my fellow senators. I
trust that our deliberations will be, in fact, for the true welfare
of all Australians.
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Curriculum General Capability: ICT Capability
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Curriculum General Capability: Critical & Creative Thinking
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Curriculum General Capability: Literacy
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Curriculum General Capability: Personal and Social Capability
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Curriculum: Cross Curriculum Priorities: Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander histories and cultures
1. As an individual, consider an Issue
After reading Neville Bonner's profile, and considering
how passionate he felt about changing the way Indigenous people lived, think
about an issue which you feel strongly about eg: modern slavery (use of child
labour in factories), environmental issues, climate
change, farmers and drought, Menindee fish kill; Children's rights; or
refugees to name a few.