Cultural centre opened in honour of Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG
Canberra’s Australian National University (ANU) today officially opened the Lowitja O’Donoghue Cultural Centre, in recognition of our co-patron, the late Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG’s extraordinary life and ongoing impact.
Her Excellency the Hon Sam Mostyn AC, Governor General of Australia, attended the event, which marks the third building named in honour of women as part of the ANU building renaming initiative.
Yankunytjatjara woman Dr O’Donoghue is the first Aboriginal person to be recognised with the naming of an ANU building, and in 1995 she was the first Aboriginal person to be awarded an honorary doctorate (Law) at the university.
‘Our family are very proud of the naming and opening of the Lowitja O’Donoghue Cultural Centre at Australian National University,’ Ms Deb Edwards, Dr O’Donoghue’s niece and Head of the Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation, said. ‘Our Auntie spent many years working and living in Canberra, and during that time was honoured to become the university’s first Aboriginal person to be awarded an honorary doctorate.
‘Her incredible legacy, and lifelong dedication to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, is now reflected through the naming of the Cultural Centre, where community can gather together, enthused with a feeling of unity, connection and culture, as Dr O’Donoghue always encouraged.’
ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Genevieve Bell said naming the ANU Cultural Centre honoured Dr O’Donoghue’s life, leadership, and legacy.
‘Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue was a woman of courage, grace and dignity. Her achievements were many but, as she would often stress to colleagues, she was never satisfied as there was always so much more work to be done,” Professor Bell said. “It’s in this spirit of constant improvement and striving that we are honoured to bestow her name on our Cultural Centre here at ANU – a significant building at the heart of our campus which brings our community together.’
