As Australia heads into another National Reconciliation Week, the 19th Annual Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration arrives at a moment that feels both heavy and necessary. Held at Elder Hall on Kaurna Country, and hosted by the Don Dunstan Foundation, this year’s oration brings a voice that is as accomplished as it is grounded: Larissa Behrendt.
Titled Strength with Grace: Bringing the Nation Together, Behrendt’s address cuts directly into the current national mood. Public debate in Australia has become increasingly rigid, framed by division, fatigue, and at times, outright hostility. But rather than meeting that energy with more of the same, Behrendt points to a different tradition of leadership, one long practised by First Nations women: steady, strategic, and deeply relational.
This isn’t about softening the truth. It’s about how truth is carried.
Drawing inspiration from the legacy of Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue, the oration reflects on a powerful idea: that justice is not rooted in guilt, but in responsibility. It’s a framing that shifts the conversation away from defensiveness and toward collective maturity. In a time where many conversations stall before they even begin, that shift matters.
Behrendt brings a unique authority to this space. A Eualeyai/Gamilaraay woman, she is a Distinguished Professor and Laureate Fellow at the Jumbunna Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, and her work spans law, storytelling, and cultural advocacy. Whether through her award-winning novels, her filmmaking, or her role hosting Speaking Out on ABC Radio, her career has consistently centred Indigenous voices and perspectives in ways that resonate far beyond academia.
But what makes this oration particularly compelling isn’t just Behrendt’s résumé; it’s the clarity of the message.
There is a quiet challenge embedded in Strength with Grace. It asks what it would look like for Australia to move forward not through avoidance or performative agreement, but through honesty, courage, and shared responsibility. It suggests that bringing the nation together isn’t about erasing difference, but about recognising the strength that comes from it. If approached with care.
Since its inception in 2007, the Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration has stood as a space for exactly this kind of reflection. Born from the mutual respect between Lowitja O’Donoghue and Don Dunstan, it continues to invite audiences into conversations that are often uncomfortable, but always necessary.
This year feels no different. Except perhaps in urgency.
At a time when many Australians are questioning where we go next, Behrendt’s oration doesn’t offer easy answers. Instead, it offers something more useful: a way of thinking, a way of leading, and a way of listening that might actually allow the conversation to move forward.
And that, in itself, is a powerful place to begin.