The Uncle Lewis Yarlupurka O’Brien Oration for 2023 on 26 October will focus on The Collective Living-Legacy of Aunty Gladys Elphick and the Council of Aboriginal Women.

Flinders University’s Associate Professor Natalie Harkin will provide this year’s address to examine the context of the firm friendship between Betty Fisher and Gladys Elphick MBE, affectionately known as ‘Aunty Glad’, and their groundbreaking advocacy and social justice work.

In 2018, a significant archive complied by Betty was entrusted to Associate Professor Harkin. This gift came with an explicit request to complete Aunty Glad’s book which they commenced in 1964.

During this oration, Associate Professor Harkin will explain her research paper entitled ‘A Story of Friendship: Betty Fisher and the Collective Living-Legacy of Aunty Gladys Elphick and the Council of Aboriginal Women in South Australia’, which addresses the significant challenges and cultural responsibilities involved in honouring the living-legacy archive of Aunty Glad as a community-owned story.

Everyone is invited to attend the 2023 Uncle Lewis Yarlupurka O’Brien Oration, from 6-7pm on Thursday, 26 October in the Alere Function Centre – and will also be live streamed online. In-person attendees are invited to enjoy some light refreshments following the Oration.

To attend in person, or online, please register your attendance here.