Fed: Australia set to have first indigenous political leader

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Fed: Australia set to have first indigenous political leader

By Sharon Mathieson

CANBERRA, Aug 21 AAP - Thirty-five years after Aborigines were recognised as Australiancitizens, the nation is set to have its first indigenous political party leader.

Aden Ridgeway is expected to take over the reins of the Australian Democrats followingthe resignation today of Natasha Stott Despoja as party leader.

Senator Ridgeway, the deputy leader of the Democrats, has been named interim leaderof the embattled party and is likely to be elevated to leader after a membership vote.

The 39-year-old, who is only the second Aborigine to sit in parliament, was electedto the Senate three years ago after a career as head of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council.

He was immediately credited with revolutionising the government's approach to Aboriginalissues and opening a new channel of communication between the government and indigenousleaders.

Two days after Senator Ridgeway took his seat in the Senate in August 1999, Prime MinisterJohn Howard released a draft preamble to be put to the republic referendum.

After consultation with Senator Ridgeway, Mr Howard made significant changes to acknowledgethe deep kinship Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders have with the land.

More importantly, the talks on the preamble opened up communication lines between theprime minister and Senator Ridgeway, leading to the historic parliamentary statement ofdeep and sincere regret for past injustices against Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

Mr Howard and his wife Janette celebrated the apology with a reconciliation ceremonyof their own, holding an afternoon tea with then Aboriginal and Torres Strait IslanderCommission (ATSIC) chairman Gatjil Djerrkura and his predecessor Lowitja O'Donoghue.

The meeting ended almost 18 months of broken communication lines with ATSIC.

But his profile slipped after Natasha Stott Despoja became party leader and snaredthe lion's share of public attention.

Senator Ridgeway, whose father was a member of the stolen generation, was born intothe Gumbayyngirr people at Macksville in northern NSW and raised on the Bellwood AboriginalMission.

In an ABC interview two years ago, he spoke of his first political encounter in 1967when he travelled to Sydney to take part in a rally supporting the historic referendumwhich enabled indigenous people to be counted as Australian.

"The only thing you knew was being Aboriginal - knowing the family, knowing all ofthe families on the reserve - that you were somehow connected to that community," he said.

"That was the entire world at the time, knowing that beyond that world that there wasa white population."

Family folklore has it that at 10 years of age Senator Ridgeway told his mother hewanted to be a politician.

"I can only guess I was influenced by the publicity Neville Bonner might have beengetting," he said in an interview with The Australian newspaper.

Senator Ridgeway's involvement in politics started in earnest in 1993 when he was involvedin Mabo negotiations.

Taking the reins of the divided Democrats at one of the most turbulent times in theparty's history will test whether Aden Ridgeway's leadership skills match his early politicalambitions.

AAP sm/daw/ph/br

KEYWORD: DEMOCRATS RIDGEWAY NIGHTLEAD (WITH FACTBOX)