Woman working wonders
30 Jun 2017
Sister Anne Gardiner won the 2017 Senior Australian of the Year Award for her work helping the indigenous Tiwi people on Bathurst Island.
For over 60 years Sister Anne Gardiner has lived and worked tirelessly with the Tiwi people, helping them establish a school and a museum, as well as many other important projects.
Sister Anne moved to Bathurst Island from NSW in 1953 as a member of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. She was just 22 years old.
So how did it feel to be posted to a remote island at such a young age? Sister Anne says she didn’t hesitate. “I was young, I was adventurous. I could do anything!” she says. Still, she never imagined that one day she would be named Senior Australian of the Year for her tireless work. She says it was “overwhelming” and she “cried and cried” when she heard the news.
In her acceptance speech on the day, Sister Anne called for greater recognition of Australia’s indigenous peoples in policy. She said cultures like that of the Tiwi face a unique set of challenges, and she hopes to see Australia do more to recognise this in her lifetime.
Sister Anne is still working on several projects on Bathurst Island and has no plans to retire any time soon. She says, “I feel that while I have a project, while I have a reason to be, I’ll keep going. I’ve seen so many people give up. I know some people who are very sick at my age. But if we have been given good health, let’s keep going.”
Sister Anne’s first few years on Bathurst Island were spent teaching the local children in a little room under a church. Eventually, she helped build a school, where she worked as principal before handing it back to the local people in 1997. She left the island briefly to study in Broome, but returned in 2001 and has lived there since.
These days her work is focused on keeping the Tiwi language and culture alive through the island’s Tiwi Museum. “We have a beautiful gallery now which is all about the involvement of the Tiwi in World War Two,” she says. Sister Anne has also worked with others to set up a mother’s group, a Little Athletics club, a café – and even an op shop.
Sister Anne fondly remembers the day she returned to Bathurst Island immediately after accepting her award. She says her Tiwi friends gave her a lovely welcome, and sang Slim Dusty’s You’ve Done us Proud. “It was very moving,” she says, in her charactericaly humble way.
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