A new bronze statue of Olympian and politician Nova Peris, OAM, was recently unveiled in Federation Square, Melbourne. The statue will be taken up to Darwin to be permanently placed in Nova’s home town after one month. Nova Peris swapped hockey, for which she won an Olympic gold medal, for athletics and exceled in that arena too. Nova was the first Indigenous woman to be elected to parliament and represented the ALP in the senate for the Northern Territory for three years.
Her daughter Destiny, a St Andrew’s student, spoke at the official unveiling. Here is the full text of her speech.
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Mum’s last international race was at the World Championships in 2001, when she was four months pregnant with me. Mum had me, and then had Jack, and she moved on from her sporting career onto her other passion. Yes, I was the end of Nova Peris’ sporting career. Her other passion being, voicing those who cannot speak for themselves – I don’t think this is something that mum will ever stop doing. As I was not a part of her sporting career, when I think about what my mother has achieved, I think about her advocacy work for First Nations mob. I wanted to talk briefly about three of my mum’s achievements, which I know helped many people around Australia, as well as shaped the person I am today.
(I) Jack and I travelled with mum to 104 rural and remote communities around Australia, with the intention to promote healthy behaviours in young people. This was achieved through conducting health checks and encouraging locals to engage in physical activity. This was a mammoth effort over the course of two years. I was quite young, so I don’t vividly remember a lot, but I do remember having my finger pricked – to check my blood-sugar, and running around with local kids with orange slices for mouth guards.
(II) Mum established the Nova Peris Girls’ Academy at several schools in Darwin. This was founded to encourage girls to attend their classes, to provide them with experiences they wouldn’t have dreamt about prior to the Academy – like meeting the Governor General and travelling interstate for sport, and to teach them life skills, which you’re not taught in school. A lot of the girls in the Academy became big sisters to me and I had the pleasure of being involved in most of the activities the Academy arranged for the girls.
(III) Mum became the first Aboriginal woman in Federal Parliament. I was at boarding school at Canberra Girls’ Grammar for one of her three years in Parliament, and during her sittings I would run the 800-ish metres up to Parliament House in the morning, go through security with my own Parliament House ID card – like a boss, and say “hello” before school.
I am currently studying nursing at University. A major inspiration for this degree-choice was the travelling throughout rural and remote Australia when I was young. Knowing that there is such a vast disparity between the health of my people and that of non-Indigenous Australians is disheartening and I realise that I can minimise that gap at the forefront, like mum did. I also mentor the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls my old school and a nearby school in Sydney, as work.
Even as a 10/11-year-old, I saw the effect my mother’s mentoring had on the girls in her Academy. I realise that support from people who are able to empathise with you, through similar lived experiences, is invaluable and inspires the best in the mentee. Also, even now, post her political career, mum is an ambassador for so many First Nations’ projects and organisations. I have adopted this nature of wanting to help my people and taking on all that I can to do so.
I realise now that I have learnt so much from watching mum do the things that she is passionate about and enjoys, and seeing how that impacts others’ lives. To be here with my mum and all of you, who have come to support her on this day – where she has been immortalised in bronze, is indescribable. Her statue notably inspires young women of marginalised backgrounds to realise that what is considered impossible, can be achieved. As well as this, mum’s statue is the physical representation of the impact she has already had in people’s hearts and minds. I love you, mum and I am so proud.