Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My contribution is a brief one. I think there has been much said by the previous three speakers that really does paint a fabulously accurate, warm, enduring and respectful picture of Mr Lester OAM of the Yankunytjatjara people of South Australia. Once again, I recognise country and pay respect to the traditional owners of this land on which Parliament House is built.

I knew Mr Lester—not well, but I came to know him through the wonderful work he did in the education arena, which I was also working in. He was a gracious man with a melodious voice. He was incredibly intelligent, and incredibly patient and resilient, as everyone has pointed out. He was not only an effective activist; he was a very, very real community and family person. He never forgot that his place was with the community, and his Aboriginality was who he was.

His story is all too familiar to Indigenous Australians. He did suffer a great injustice, along with his people, during the terrible times of those tests—those tests that were not even known to be going on by the broader Australian community. It was an arrangement between the British and Australian governments, with no consideration or care for the first peoples, the traditional peoples, of those countries. In fact, white people were not known to many of those people. So not only the shock of those clouds was enormous but the shock of the people in that country was enormous. His family and his community did suffer a great injustice. He suffered in many ways and he used his suffering, turning it into—with inspiration—the advocacy that he used to fight and to do the amazing things he did with his life.

He didn't fight for justice for only Aboriginal people; he fought for justice for all Australians. And that was very much the work he did that led to the McClelland royal commission. That would not have happened without the advocacy of Yami Lester, and we as a country would have been denied the truth of what actually took place out there in those desert lands in South Australia. He has spoken about it, and we've heard about the black mist that he saw coming over, not just over him—it blew in from the south—but over his family, over his family's camp and over many other families.

As our previous speaker just said, who knows how many people died as a result of that? We know about the illness. We know about the subsequent blindness, the suffering, the vomiting, the diarrhoea, but we don't know exactly how many people were out there, and we'll never know. We'll never know the true cost of those terrible, terrible tests, and, of course, the efforts to clean up that land. People have spoken about the important connection of Aboriginal people with country, and that probably is the greatest injustice of all: destroying that country—but, of course, not destroying the songlines and not destroying the spirit of that country.

Yami Lester carried himself with grace and dignity, and with that grace and dignity, that intelligence, that persistence, he was able to achieve an enormous amount of things in his life. He carried himself with patience and dedication when he had every reason to give up because of his disability. But that disability became a strength that he proved to everyone.

We have heard of the many positions that he held. As I said, I came into contact with Mr Lester through my work in the education space and through his work as well. He took a passionate interest and advanced the cause of education for Aboriginal children. He knew full well that education was and is crucial to breaking the shackles of oppression. We all know that. I have heard many of our members in this place speak about that. He also advanced the cause of Aboriginal land rights within the South Australian government.

He leaves behind, as we have heard, three children, Rosemary Leroy and Karina. Those children are carrying on the amazing legacy of their father, and what a legacy it is. He leaves behind a legacy we should all work to continue to advance: of justice and equality, of no rancour and no meanness. That is the fundamental aspect of Yami's personality that made him the man he was: a remarkable Australian, a remarkable South Australian, a remarkable Yankunytjatjara man. If we all had just a small ounce of his grace, dignity and patience we would be greater people.

On the day of his death, as the member for Lingiari said, he had a wonderful sense of humour. I think it was on the ABC that there was a clip of an interview with Mr Lester. The interviewer said, prophetically, 'How would you like to be remembered?' He looked at the camera and laughed. He said, 'I want to be remembered as a good stockman.' That was Yami Lester.

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