Pat Anderson (human rights advocate)
Patricia Audrey Anderson is an Australian human rights advocate and health administrator. An Alyawarre woman from the Northern Territory, she is well known internationally as a social justice advocate, advocating for improved health, and educational and protection outcomes for Indigenous Australian children. Early years. Anderson grew up in the Parap camp in Darwin, Northern Territory, encountering discrimination and racism Her mother was part of the Stolen Generation. Anderson was one of the first Aboriginal graduates from the University of Western Australia. Career and advocacy. Anderson worked as a legal secretary for the Woodward Royal Commission  into Aboriginal Land Rights. In the early 1990s Anderson became the CEO of Danila Dilba Aboriginal Health Service in Darwin. She held the positions of Chair of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and Executive Officer of the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory (AMSANT). She led the founding of the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Aboriginal and Tropical Health in 1997, and when the Cooperative Research Centre was refunded in 2003 as The CRC for Aboriginal Health, she took on the role of chair. Anderson has spoken before the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations. Together with  Rex Wild QC, she co-authored the 2007 "Little Children Are Sacred" report on child abuse in the Northern Territory. Anderson is the Chairperson of the Lowitja Institute, Australia's National Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research. She was Co-chair on the Referendum Council which consulted with hundreds of Indigenous people to deliver the historic "Uluru Statement from the Heart" in May 2017. In May 2020 Anderson will deliver the Lowitja O'Donoghue Oration at the Don Dunstan Foundation.