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oil on canvas (frame: 159.7 cm x 159.7 cm, support: 136.8 cm x 136.8 cm)
Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG (1932–2024), a Yankunytjatjara woman,
dedicated her life’s work to advancing the rights and wellbeing of
Australia’s First Nations peoples. Born at Indulkana in the Anangu
Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, O’Donoghue was
removed from her mother at the age of two and raised in a children’s
home. The first Aboriginal woman to complete nursing training at the
Royal Adelaide Hospital, she travelled to remote communities, learning
about her heritage through ‘just doing what I could to heal people’.
Among her many achievements, she was Chair of the National Aboriginal
Conference, Chair of the Aboriginal Development Commission and Chair of
the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, where she helped
to draft the Mabo legislation. The Lowitja Institute for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander health research was established in 2010, and in
2022 formed the Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation to continue and preserve
its patron’s legacy. For her 2006 portrait by Robert Hannaford,
O’Donoghue chose a red suit that she regularly wore for official
occasions, along with jewellery proudly signifying her cultural
heritage. Hannaford painted the portrait during several sessions at his
studio in Adelaide, and says he aimed to capture his sitter’s ‘vast
understanding and sympathy’.
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This portrait is of Lowitja O'Donoghue, Yankunjatjara woman and Indigenous rights campaigner. It was painted by Robert Hannaford in 2006 in oil on canvas. The work measures about 1.4 m tall by 1.4 m wide, set in its wide frame of dark wood. The portrait is painted realistically with loosely applied brushstrokes. Lowitja wears a bright red skirt-suit and is seated in front of a dark background.
The scene is lit from the top left. Lowitja is illuminated in a soft pool of light filling the top right and centre of the painting. Pale green-grey and blue-grey brush strokes at the top right curve around and down towards the bottom left, their direction changing, sweeping around and getting darker towards the lower edge of the canvas.
Lowitja sits on a dark wood chair in the centre of the image. The rounded corners of its back rise above each of her shoulders. Her head is tilted slightly down to her left with her chin angled up. Lowitja’s silvery hair is short, parted on the side, and styled in a wave over her forehead. Her skin is in warm honey tones and her cheeks are tinged pink. Lowitja has fine steeply-arched eyebrows above her dark eyes that gaze directly at us. Her nose is broad and deep grooves flow from it to the outer edges of her thin rosy lips. Her lips are closed and slightly downturned, creating soft jowels which frame her broad chin.
In the portrait Lowitja wears a loosley-fitted long jacket that runs down her lap to her knees. It has an Aboriginal Flag pin on the left lapel and is open, with three large round gold buttons gleaming brightly down its left side. A strand of black red and yellow beads and an oval shaped Aboriginal Flag pendant on a fine chain stand out against her black round-necked top.
Lowitja’s elbows rest lightly on the carved wooden arms of the chair and her hands lie with fingers extended in her lap. On the ring finger of her left hand she wears a wide yellow-gold band, while on her right a ring is set with a large black rectangular stone.
Lowitja’s red skirt extends over her knees and out of frame. The same red has been used by the artist to sign ‘Hannaford 06’ on the bottom right of the canvas.
Audio description written by Lucinda Shawcross and voiced by Amy Middleby
