There is a story that we need to know. A great spirit who moves on the breeze. Who rests on Bundjalung country. Not that this fiercely visionary woman rested much! This woman of goanna and turtle dreaming who belongs not to one place, but to all places. All nations. Who dedicated her life to her community with compassion informed by powerful political advocacy.
She was a nurse who helped found the first Aboriginal community-controlled health service – one of the key first steps in addressing colonisation, and the consequent health and social disparity. Her work changed lives. Her work made history.
Her name is Dr Naomi Mayers OAM, or Aunty Nay. A proud Yorta Yorta and Wiradjuri woman, born in 1941 on Erambie Mission just outside of Cowra in country NSW. While Shepparton was her hometown, a few weeks ago she was laid to rest here in Mullumbimby, on Bundjalung country interred with her partner of over 50 years, Sol Bellear, Bundjalung man, and a legend of the land rights movement. This was where she asked to be buried. Her story has become part of our story now.
The premier of NSW acknowledged Dr Naomi’s passing along with Aunty Ann Weldon, her dear friend and colleague who passed just days after her, as two ‘titans in the Indigenous rights movement.’ They certainly were.
Dr Naomi Mayers was 84 at the time of her death. When Aunty Nay was born, Aboriginal people could not vote. That right came when she was 21. As a non-Indigenous person, when I read her story I was blown away by the power of this woman I never met. I can barely fathom what adversity and prejudice she pushed back on. And how she found this relentless courage to reform a racist system. And succeed.
First she did it with music. Naomi Mayers was one of the Sapphires. Yes. The first popular all-female Aboriginal singing group – the one Tony Briggs made a film about. Indigenous performers faced so many barriers in the 1960s – this was her training ground for her life’s work in health. She already had the experience of facing adversity, pushing back, and rising to the top. There’s another film, not yet made. It’s what happened after the Sapphires! The Redfern years!
About how she became a nurse. How she met an African-American roller derby champion and had her son Joseph. Later partnering with Sol Bellear, with whom she had their daughter Tamara, and embarked on founding a political movement. It was her work with the Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service that they honoured by saying: ‘One of her legacies will be self-determination and community control, which she never deviated from as she continued to support many Aboriginal communities across Australia.’
As a young woman, Naomi Mayers started with the Aborigines Advancement League in Victoria, one of the oldest continuing community-controlled organisations. It would have been their early years, but it was here where values about self-determination, self-sufficiency and self-management took root. Promoting Aboriginal culture and identity was at the core – and this is the vision Naomi walked forward with her work, helping establish AMS in Redfern, and the beginnings of the Aboriginal Children’s Service and Aboriginal Housing Company, then as a board member of the Aboriginal Legal Service and as a representative with ATSIC.
Aunty Nay saw the intersection between housing and health for her community, and was a founding member of the peak body representing 146 Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations – NACCHO – the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation.
Aunty Nay was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 1984 and in 2023 she was given the National NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award.
I spoke with her son Joseph who remembered growing up with his remarkable mum who held a doctorate in Aboriginal Affairs and was later awarded a Doctor of Letters in 2017.
‘As kids we couldn’t watch Tarzan, or play cowboys and indians. Instead we played ‘demonstrations,’ shared Joseph.
He shared beautiful reflections of his selfless mum. About people who would visit and end up living on the couch for a year. ‘She had this formidable reputation. She was hard but fair. And kind.’
Dr Naomi Mayers OAM ‘Aunty Nay’ had her funeral service on Friday, 17 April in Redfern. She was farewelled in Shepparton the week after, before coming here, to her final resting place in Mullumbimby with Uncle Sol.
Ironically the woman who started her career on tour, ended it with a tour! Something Joseph acknowledged. There were just so many parts of her story to tell.
‘We shared our Mum with a lot of people,’ said Joseph.
Aunty Nay’s life is a profound lesson in leadership. In doing what it takes to make real change. One life that has transformed thousands.
And now, she is with us. Dr Aunty Naomi Mayers AOM, it is our honour and our privilege to have you choose this place as your final one.
Respect.
Mandy Nolan’s column has appeared in The Echo for almost 25 years. She is a writer, comedian and artist, and was the Greens cadidate at the past two elections.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
