DAME QUENTIN BRYCE - Fighting for Lockhart's children

For 15 years Dame Quentin Bryce has been visiting Lockhart River. It’s here she has forged her most treasured friendships and on a poignant trip with The Weekly, she introduces Juliet Rieden to the women Elders now fighting for a future for their children.

- Juliet Rieden

There’s an aura to Lockhart River. It’s like no other and it hits you from the moment you touch down on the rich red earth of the tiny airstrip in this remote northernmost town on the east coast of Australia. It’s something to do with the extraordinary virgin landscape, so beautiful it makes you gasp; but also to do with the people, whose mostly quiet resilience has kept this place together.

The spirit of Lockhart soars in the soulful work of the town’s famous “Art Gang”, a growing “mob” of acclaimed Indigenous artists whose paintings are collected around the world. In the calm of the afternoon, The Art Centre studio is a place of therapeutic contemplation – and colourful pots of paint – where Lockhart’s stories are told on canvas. They are about the wonder of nature, the very essence of humanity, and they reveal something hidden inside.

Lockhart’s tight-knit mostly Indigenous community of about 700 people is keen to look to the future, while also paying due respect to the struggles of the past. Here Elders have joined together to take leadership positions, working within the structure of council and government, while also staying true to their culture and customs. It’s a delicate balance which doesn’t always work and is bruised by contemporary ills ranging from unemployment and domestic violence, to alcohol abuse, suicide and teenage delinquency; but the passion is palpable and infectious.