The passing of former NSW Governor Dame Marie Bashir is a loss to Australia and to the movement for reconciliation.
Dame Marie was a lifelong supporter of First Nations rights and reconciliation and used her position, both in her psychiatric career and as Governor, to advocate for Aboriginal self-determination. She listened to the voices of First Nations people and spoke up for their rights and aspirations.
Despite mingling with royalty and the rich and powerful, she never lost her passion for seeking justice for the oppressed and disempowered. She was known for her refusal to be bound by the stiff formalities of vice-regal office and was famously a giver of warm hugs to those experiencing hard times.
A founding member of native title support group, Women for Wik, Dame Marie was an active supporter of native title and strongly and publicly opposed the Howard Government’s weakening of the Native Title Act.
As a woman of proud Lebanese heritage, she was an exemplary for the relationship between Aboriginal people and the Lebanese Australian community and worked to ensure migrants understood ‘the horrors of colonisation’ as she described the First Nations experience of British colonialism.
Reconciliation Australia offers profound condolences to Marie Bashir’s family and friends.
