Tauto Sansbury (c. 1949 – 23 September 2019) was a

Narungga The Narungga people, also spelt Narangga, are a group of Aboriginal Australians whose traditional lands are located throughout Yorke Peninsula, South Australia. Their traditional language, one of the Yura-Thura grouping, is Narungga. Country ...

man from the

Yorke Peninsula The Yorke Peninsula is a peninsula located northwest and west of Adelaide in South Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. The peninsula is separated from Kangaroo Island to the south by Investigator Strai ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. He was the recipient of the NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015

NAIDOC Week NAIDOC Week ( ) is an Australian observance lasting from the first Sunday in July until the following Sunday. The acronym NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee, which was originally National Aborigines Day ...

celebrations. Sansbury was born and raised on an

Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th c ...

and dedicated his life to advocacy for

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

Early life

Sansbury was born at some place in the world named the

Point Pearce Point Pearce, also spelt Point Pierce in the past, is a town in the Australian state of South Australia. The town is located in the Yorke Peninsula Council local government area, north-west of the state capital, Adelaide. At the , Point Pearce h ...

Mission in the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia. He also had

Kaurna The Kaurna people (, ; also Coorna, Kaura, Gaurna and other variations) are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kaurn ...

and Wirangu heritage.

Career

As state chairperson of the South Australian Aboriginal Justice Advocacy Committee and chairperson of the National Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee for over 10 years, Sansbury fought to improve the conditions of

Aboriginal people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

in the

criminal justice system Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...

. Sansbury served in numerous official and voluntary positions, including chairperson of the South Australian Aboriginal Coalition for Social justice. He was a consultant to the Social Inclusion Unit, undertaking community consultations on the so-called "Gang of 49" for the ''Breaking the Cycle Report''. More recently he was employed as CEO and general manager in health and Aboriginal employment and ran his own Aboriginal consultancy called Garridja. In 2014, Sansbury launched a national advocacy movement for Indigenous people, the Freedom Movement. Sansbury was a long term member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

and stood for elections, but in 2013 resigned from the party stating that whether in opposition or government it does not help Aboriginal people. Sansbury died on 23 September 2019 after a 15-month illness with

non-Hodgkin's lymphoma Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), also known as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, is a group of blood cancers that includes all types of lymphomas except Hodgkin lymphomas. Symptoms include lymphadenopathy, enlarged lymph nodes, fever, night sweats, weight los ...

Awards

* 1996: Aboriginal of the Year, National NAIDOC Awards * 2003: Australian Centenary medal in recognition of work as Director of the Aboriginal Justice Advocacy Committee and the National Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee. * 2014: Male Elder of the Year SA NAIDOC Awards * 2015:

National NAIDOC Awards Lifetime Achievement Award * 2015

National Indigenous Human Rights Awards The National Indigenous Human Rights Awards are annual Australian awards that recognise the contribution of Indigenous Australians to human rights and social justice. The ceremony takes place in Sydney, New South Wales. History The National Ind ...

Dr Yunupingu Award for Human Rights

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sansbury, Tauto 1949 births 2019 deaths Australian indigenous rights activists Deaths from cancer in South Australia Deaths from non-Hodgkin lymphoma Narungga