The president of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander veterans association of Western Australia, Dianne Ryder; the last living fluent speaker of the Badimaya language, Ollie George; and the NBA champion Patty Mills are among the winners of the 2017 Naidoc awards.
Two-time Paralympian and silver medalist Amanda Reid was named sportsperson of the year at the ceremony in Cairns on Saturday, which marked the launch of this year’s Naidoc week.
Noongar woman Ryder was given the prestigious lifetime achievement award for her work with Indigenous veterans and her 21-year career in the armed forces.
Naidoc committee co-chair Ben Mitchell praised Ryder as a leader in her field.
“I think when we talk about preservation of culture, the influence it has on our children, the status of some of the work she’s done can be categorised as legendary,” he said.
Queenslander Faye Carr was named female elder of the year for her work in Indigenous legal advocacy. Carr, who was also Ipswich citizen of the year in 2016 and is known as “Aunty Faye”, worked for the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service for 14 years.
Even in retirement, she volunteers in prisoner outreach programs at the Southern Queensland Correctional Centre.
Male elder of the year George was honoured, in keeping with this year’s theme of “Our language matters”, for his preservation of endangered Indigenous languages. George is the last living fluent speaker of the Badimaya language of Western Australia, and in 2014 led his community in releasing the first Badimaya dictionary.
The person of the year award went to Mills, a three-time Australian Olympian basketballer and NBA champion. Mills, whose father was born on Thursday Island and whose mother is a Ynunga woman from South Australia, has been a public ambassador of his Indigenous heritage.
“The work that he has done off the basketball court has been absolutely tremendous in highlighting his culture, particularly putting Torres Strait Islanders on the international map,” Mitchell said.
Mills has played for Australia’s mens basketball team at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics, and in 2014 won the NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs.
Also recognised for her sporting achievements was 20-year-old Reid, who has represented Australia at the Paralympics twice, in two different sports.
Reid won a silver medal for cycling at the 2016 Rio games, and competed in swimming in London in 2012.
Born in Sydney’s Blue Mountains, Reid has heritage from the Wemba Wemba and Guringee people, and won seven gold medals on her international swimming debut, at the 2011 Global Games in Italy.
Also honoured were artist of the year Elverina Johnson, youth of the year Latia Schefe, scholar of the year Dr James Charles and apprentice of the year Sharee Yamashita.