Launch of Linda: Unfinished Journey

On Monday 10 November 2014, Her Excellency Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO launched Noel Beddoe’s Linda Burney – A Life at The Sydney Institute. The book’s launch brought together an eclectic audience – filling the Gallipoli Club’s function room and spilling into the ante room. Lynette Riley performed a welcome to country and presented Linda Burney with an embossed kangaroo skin. Linda Burney was introduced by The Hon Carmel Tebbutt. The occasion celebrated a life lived through immense challenges to reach undreamed of heights. It also was a testament to the inclusive group of friends and colleagues who have supported Linda Burney in her journey.

LAUNCH OF LINDA: UNFINISHED JOURNEY

MARIE BASHIR

What a joy and a privilege I feel from the depths of my heart, a very personal one to have the honour to do this, this afternoon.

It’s wonderful to be with you all; we’ve got Mr John Robertson, Leader of the Opposition and of course our heroine, our guest of honour, the Hon Linda Burney, Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Linda has been so much to so many people as you will all agree. The Hon Carmel Tebbutt, another outstanding Australian woman is with us also. And Noel Beddoe and his wife Vivian. So many outstanding people are here including Justice The Hon John Hatzistergos.

Lynette, thank you for your welcome to country. And may I also affirm my deepest respect for the traditional custodians of this land. The Gadigal people of the Eora nations and indeed all Australia’s Aboriginal people who’ve merged in this continent for tens of thousands of years. And if I may be partisan, like you, as an adopted Wiradjuri woman, especially the Wiradjuri as Linda is.

We’ve come here to learn about and, let me say, to honour an outstanding Australian. Outstanding in every sense, certainly a woman of incredible courage, highly intelligent and making a difference. She is contributing in so many ways to an even better Australian. Linda began her life’s journey in Wiradjuri country at Whitton near Leeton, which is part of the beautiful Murrawingi irrigation area where some of the finest fruits and vegetables on this planet are grown.

Certainly, for our heroine, it is clear from Noel Beddoe’s fine biography that her early years could hardly be described as bountiful. As I read this moving chronicle, my heart turned over many times and I’ll confess I held back the tears. Linda’s biological mother, a non Aboriginal woman, walked out of the hospital following Linda’s birth, leaving her to the care of aging relatives Nina and Billy, aunt and uncle to Linda’s mother. Her schooling years followed where few if any noted the exceptional resilience and the inner beauty of this wonderful woman descended from a Wiradjuri father whom she met later in life.

After these elderly relatives had become too frail to provide care, Linda was moved about but ever determined to complete her education, eventually qualifying into that most essential of all professions: education. Indeed, it was as a most impressive officer in the field of education as an educational Aboriginal consultant that I first had the privilege of meeting Linda, proud indeed to extol her exceptional inner strength, her integrity, her intellectual energy.

At the time, I was a psychiatrist in the public sector, working with stressed adolescents, so our paths crossed on many occasions. Linda was always dedicated to the wellbeing of our children. Especially any children being left behind. So we had much in common.

This fine biography introduces us to Linda’s biological family and especially the musical talents of her non-Aboriginal father and her brother Collin. We witness the very poignant occasion of her first ever meeting with him at a country and western performance that will move you deeply. And what he said.

Linda’s reminiscences as a child and her ever positive attitude may give some insight into the wonderful journey. She has been moulded by a loving foster family, a love of reading and a refusal to accept negativity – despite the understandable material limitations of those formative years. Following her successful completion of the School Certificate year at Leeton High it was off to Penrith High School which she did not enjoy but never ever gave up.

You will be as moved as I when you read that on learning of the death of her biological mother, despite rarely having seen her, Linda attended the funeral with a sense of feeling and connection. You see a nobility of spirit there. Certainly, Penrith High had given Linda that great weapon of resilience and progress, an education that won her a Teachers College scholarship to become a teacher, the most vital and indispensable profession from which all else follows. It means one can share with others and make them resilient too.

So Linda’s journey took her into the New South Wales Department of Education where, in every sense, she would be a powerful ambassador for the encouragement of our Aboriginal children towards educational attainment. The most powerful weapon of all as Nelson Mandela described it.

The various senior officers in the New South Wales Department of Education, who were proud to support Linda’s inspirational but quiet leadership, are mentioned in this biography. They were aware of her extraordinary diligence, her attention to detail. And, may I say at the risk of being sexist, her impeccable grooming and great beauty. As the journey continues, we recall with some understandable pride that historic event, that day of reconciliation – the walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We’ll never forget it will we? In May 2000, when I too with my children and grandchildren felt some of the joy which comes in being one people, one destiny.

As a member of the Reconciliation Council, Linda had played a major role in so many of the Council’s contributions. Then we learnt of that wonderful man whom Linda had met. Personal happiness was her due, and it seemed that this would come about through a most important friendship with a remarkable man, a man even described as visionary – Rick Farley. But fate was cruel beyond words. I recall a mounting anxiety in our hearts when we learnt of Rick’s dramatically acute illness. A condition that often results in immediate death, a form of stroke. But this courageous man, after five months of hospitalisation, was transferred from continuing care at a large teaching hospital and into a non acute setting. So his subsequent death in a runaway wheelchair, was a tragedy of immense proportions for all who knew Linda.

Because of her sheer hard work, her integrity and the universal trust that people had in her, Linda had been elected as State MP for Canterbury. Despite this overwhelming tragedy in her life, she went on to serve the people of NSW in a sequence of outstanding appointments of responsibility. And under several leaders, most recently, as Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

For over 30 years this superb Australian woman has served the people of NSW, and that means all the people of NSW regardless of political affiliation, through her wisdom, and her capacity for inclusiveness, in so many roles. The list is remarkable. Minister for Volunteering, Minister for Youth, Minister for Fair Trading, Minister for Women, Minister for Community Services, Minister for the State Plan.

Noel Beddoe has given us a glimpse, a memorable view of a wonderful Australian. Linda Burney is a model for women everywhere and an inspiration to all. I am indeed proud to have been here to launch Linda: Unfinished Journey and I commend this unforgettable chronicle of her life to you all. And, Linda, I wish you every day, for the rest of your life, great fulfilment and I thank you for what you are.

RESPONSE FROM NOEL BEDDOE

This is the third time I have appeared at the Sydney Institute – and the second time for Linda. If The Sydney Institute is called a “right wing” think tank,  don’t think we’re noted as great right wingers.

Let me firstly acknowledge with Lyn, that we meet on the lands of the Gadigal Clan of the Eora Nation, which they kept as their god Biami had created for 40,000 years. And that doesn’t mean very much if you say it quickly and don’t think about. The Eora People never gave away their land and they never sold it and they never ceded it to anyone as a result of war.

It is of course a singular privilege to achieve a partnership to walk through someone’s life from birth until the present time. Linda mentioned, in our discussions, many of the generosities and friendships which she has encountered in her life time and of which she is deeply appreciative. She’s also told me of the extraordinary tragedies that she has faced. And people who are in this audience, to whom also I spoke, have told me their experiences of some very dark and tragic days.

My friend Professor Ross Fitzgerald, an Emeritus Professor of Politics at Griffith University, met with me to discuss Linda’s significance in the overall political scene of Australia. I remember his saying: “What she faced at different points of her life, indeed from its first moment would have destroyed many people.” And in saying they would have been destroyed I believe Ross was saying that many people would have been made bitter and reclusive and selfish and wounded by experiences less than those Linda Burney has had to cope with.

As I worked with Linda and others, the thing that struck me most powerfully was not that she survived these things to become a highly valued member of the teaching staff of Lethbridge Park Public School. It was not that she became one of the key leaders of that movement seeking to redress wrongs for Aboriginal people. It was not that she became a leader for us all. And how I recall that bitterly cold day on the Sydney Harbour Bridge when we crossed it together in our hundreds of thousands with this remarkable woman to say that what has happened in our nation is a stain and we must work on it together. Extraordinary as all these accomplishments have been, the most remarkable thing to me about Linda Burney in all that she’s been through and all that she’s accomplished, is that she remains the same, generous, loyal, funny, humble person that I first met in 1980. That’s 34 years ago kid. And she still knows how to have a good time. In the book, there is a photograph of Linda with one gorgeous arm above her head, in a slightly revealing ballgown, a glass of champagne in the other hand, dancing barefoot on a table.  I’ve got that photograph and I’m keeping it unless I’m paid a lot of money.

That’s enough from me. To you all, thanks for coming. I realise that you’re here for Linda, not for me.

RESPONSE FROM THE HON LINDA BURNEY MP

I’m absolutely overwhelmed at the amount of people who have come tonight and for the enormous generosity of all of you for making the time. I have known Lynette Riley for my entire adult life, a Wiradjuri sister. Lynette, your performing the acknowledgement of country tonight was deeply moving and so appropriate. I also recognise the first people and, of course, for this part of the world the Gadigal.

The Gadigal story is deeply forged in our nation’s narrative. Everyone in this room would understand why that is. A very deep thankyou to Professor Dame Marie Bashir for launching Noel Beddoe’s biography of this Riverina girl. I think of you first and foremost, also, as a Wiradjuri sister, so thank you so much.

Thank you Carmel Tebbitt, always stunningly prepared and gracious as we saw this evening. Three women, Lynette, Professor Marie Bashir and Carmel who are very important to me, whom I respect deeply and who are all fellow travellers. I’ve known you all for a very long time and I think that will be a recurring theme in my few words tonight.

Thank you to The Sydney Institute, to Gerard and Anne, some thought this was rather an odd choice to launch this book but I think it’s perfect so thank you all so very, very much.

Can I thank also everyone for coming this evening; it’s really overwhelming to see so many people here. I was very good at Geography at school, and I know what sedimentary rock is and this reminds me of all the layers of my life that have been built. This room perfectly reflects those layers in the sedimentary life that we all have. I want to thank so many of you who have travelled a very long way to be here tonight. People from all over NSW, some very dear friends from interstate. It would be wrong for me to mention everyone’s name but I am going to mention one person’s name in a moment.

In this room this evening there are my childhood friends, work colleagues, from many parts of my career, from my teaching days, Education Department, AEU, AECG, Board of Studies, Reconciliation Council, my political life, including a very brave member of the opposition that has a part in the book. Everyone has been part of this journey but none more so than the very, very deep circle of women friends that I have; women who have been there for the best of times and the worst of times in my life. People who have kept me grounded, sane and loved; we have raised children together, we have buried husbands together. Your loyalty kept me laughing, and is probably the reason I’m standing in front of so many of you today.

I want to say also that there are children here tonight who are extraordinarily beautiful, young women and men. My son Binny has been nothing but a tower of strength. To all those young people that I have seen you go from babies into stunningly beautiful, wonderful young people, I hope that I’ve had something to do with your growing up. The one person I do want to mention tonight is Barbara Smith. Barbara Smith I have known longer than I have known any of you fellas here tonight. And Barbara has come, with her friend, all the way from Whitton.

Noel’s book is dedicated to three people, to Ninna, or my great Aunt Latisha Lang, to my great Uncle Billy Lang and to Barbara’s mother Coral Smith. These three remarkable Australians, all of them from another era, all of them non Aboriginal, did not see colour. They saw a young girl who needed their love and their support and they gave it to me.

For me, the process of making a book has been an emotional one. I’ve learned some things about my life I didn’t know. Some events had to be evaluated. My mother leaving me behind in the hospital. What else could she have done? Noel Beddoe said to me, “I think your mum loved you.” And, Noel, it’s come to pass in the last few days I found out that my mother did love me and that’s been probably the most wonderful thing in all of this. I have found peace through this process wrapped up with the price that she paid, it also allowed me to put some things to rest. Like the night my uncle fell from bed in the middle of winter, subsequently dying of pneumonia. I tried to keep him warm, but I couldn’t and he passed away. But what else could I do? The bathing of my old aunt and the platting of her hair once a week in a tub beside her bed because we didn’t have water inside. And I think that’s probably why I kept my hair long.

What extraordinary people. I know and fully appreciate their love and how brave they were. I was reminded of my country life in a time gone by, of mud pies decorated with mandarin peels, sticks and stones, days in the bush, the feel of the rice stubble scratching our legs, scant regard for spiders and snakes and, most powerful, the glorious smell of horse sweat after a canter, when I would lean over and throw my arms around the neck of that horse and smell that amazing, amazing aroma. I’d forgotten about that.

I’d forgotten in many ways but carried it with me, the cruelty of racism. Yet how that makes you tough and what resilience it gives you. My love of reading, commitment to kindness, generosity, decency and justice and I think a determination so fierce it has sustained me through so much. Throughout Rick’s illness then death and most clearly and, even more, the year my daughter lay floating between dying and living for twelve months in hospital.

I’ve come to understand that life is not always smooth sailing. And you can thrash against it or you can ride with it. Surviving turbulent waves, learning to grow as you go. I just want you all to know that I have honoured your friendships and I hope that I have grown and displayed the generous, generous gifts that you gave me.

Can I finish up by saying a couple of things. I want to thank Juno, particularly, for the front cover. What a picture – you can tell it was just after New South Wales had won the State of Origin can’t you? Thank you so much Juno. To everyone that has been part of organising tonight, thank you so much. To my dear, dear friends, to my old and current ministerial staff, thank you so much for coming.

Finally I want to say thank you to Noel and Vivian Beddoe. And I know Vivian has had a lot to do with this book. You’ve captured things so well, to have someone write your story is terrifying and it only comes about through trust and faith and an enormous amount of work. There’s just one small part thing I want to read out of the book. Just to prove there is a book.

It was the day I met my Dad:

Truly I was more nervous about meeting him than I have been made by anything else I’ve ever done. I was taken there by a friend and I was sitting in the back seat of the car. It was the start of evening, the car pulled up and I looked out of the window. I guess he’d been warned. I remember watching him cross the road to come to the car. He was a tall man; he walked like a big man, confident. He was wearing a cowboy hat. He got into the back seat with me.

“Do you remember a woman from Whitton called Rita Burney?”

He shook his head. I had Rita’s photo with me and held it up for him to see. He looked at it for a long time, then he looked at me. He looked directly into my eyes. He put his arm around my shoulder and said, “I hope I don’t disappoint you.”

Thank you everyone that’s been part of coming this evening, there are many people in this room I would have liked to have mentioned personally but please don’t be offended, it’s overwhelming to have so many people here. At the end of the day, it is you in front of me that builds a life. It is all of you that have had some part in that and I’ve had a part in your lives; our paths have crossed and that is truly what builds a life. Thank you so much, I’m touched and I will remember this evening.