Background
His mother was an Aborigine, but he never knew his father, an Englishman who went back to England before Neville was born.
His mother was an Aborigine, but he never knew his father, an Englishman who went back to England before Neville was born.
His early life was tough with no opportunity for formal education apart from one year of attendance at a school when he was 14.
In 1971 he became Australia's first Aboriginal senator and was re-elected in 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1980. During his parliamentary career he represented the interests of his people, often crossing the floor to vote with the Opposition on Indigenous issues. While Neville was initially 'viciously attacked' - as he put it - at the 1970 Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) conference for standing for Parliament, he was invited to address the FCAATSI annual conference in 1974 on the topic of Aborigines and politics. He opposed the formation of the National Aboriginal Consultative Council, seeing it as a separatist move. Instead he urged his people to 'learn the intrigues of politics' and work to enter Parliament and become a part of the decision-making process.
In 1984 Neville Bonner was awarded the Officer of the Order of Australia.