Bangardi Lee
Late in 2005 The Fred Hollows Foundation lost a dear friend - Bangardi Lee.
The former Chief Executive of the Jawoyn Association forged a close partnership with The Fred Hollows Foundation and spent a lifetime fighting for his people.
Born in 1952 on the banks of Beswick Creek, 80km east of Katherine, Bangardi Lee (1952-2005) was brought up by a senior Jawoyn Derkolo clansman, Don Jambalili, along with his Ngalkbon mother, Daisy Bordu.
He grew up in the bush, at Beswick cattle station, as well as at Barunga, then known as Bamyili. There were times, also, living in makeshift humpies on the edges of Katherine.
When she was three Bangardi Lee's sister, Rita, was removed by native welfare authorities and taken to Croker Island. He wasn't to see her until he was 18. He avoided that fate, his parents camping in a banana plantation at Eva Valley whenever Native Welfare turned up. Schooling was limited and regimented at Bamyili.
Speaking Ngalkbon, he remembers "getting a flogging for not speaking English ... we were like people from two different worlds trying to talk to each other, trying to communicate, speaking two different languages."
At about 14 he went into the workforce, as a ringer and butcher supplying Bamyili, later as a mechanical works supervisor; for a time he joined a boxing troupe.
He was later to serve for a decade as town clerk at Barunga until he moved into Katherine to run the Jawoyn Association.
In late 1989, the Jawoyn people won back title to Katherine Gorge. When his older brother, Fordimail, passed away from tuberculosis soon after that event, Bangardi Lee found himself the reluctant leader of the Jawoyn people.
The Jawoyn Council of Elders had a vision of an Association embracing all the Jawoyn clan groups which was economically independent and which provided employment and training for the Jawoyn people.
They needed somebody to step up and turn that into reality. The Council chose Bangardi Lee for that role, a role he continued to carry out until stepping down at the recent Jawoyn AGM.
As Bangardi Lee said in an interview, "I was dragged in by all my senior council members. They selected me because I was next in line for all those responsibilities."
Bangardi Lee was also instrumental, as part of the negotiating group, in the discussions that led to the Mount Todd mining agreement.
As well as his many roles in the Jawoyn nation, he has also been an executive member of the Northern Land Council, a Parks and Wildlife Commissioner and a member of the Kakadu and Gurig National Park Boards.
More recently he was a key figure in establishing the Nyirranggulung Mardrulk Ngadberre Regional Authority and the Sunrise Aboriginal Health Service. In 2004, he was chosen by the Prime Minister to sit on the National Indigenous Council.
He was also a dedicated family man who loved his children and doted on his grandchildren.
Bangardi Lee was concerned about the development of the future leaders within the Jawoyn people; those who would take over the business enterprises that he fought for so long and hard to establish.
He was a constant advocate of getting kids to stay longer at school and forged a relationship with The Fred Hollows Foundation in an attempt to address the generally low literacy levels of Jawoyn children.
In a document produced in 2004 regarding literacy he wrote, "We have to be honest and hard about this. For us the lack of literacy in our communities is a deep problem and one that threatens our future... Building the skills of reading and writing is the key to our survival as a people."
Bangardi's legacy will live with his people forever. This was the work of a great man, a man of vision and a man who wanted to make a real difference.
He will be missed by his family and by the many people who knew him as a friend and colleague.
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