Tara Murray
Uncle Graham (Boots) and Aunty Joyce Cooper were stunned to be named joint winners of Brimbank council’s citizen of the year award.
Following the council’s Australia Day ceremony on Tuesday morning, Uncle Graham said they were ‘gobsmacked’.
The two local Aboriginal Elders were honoured for their work in helping tackle broader community issues, advocating on behalf of the community, acting as role models and having fostered more than 87 children.
“We thought we were getting an OAM [medal of the Order of Australia],” Uncle Graham said.
“This award, in my eyes, citizens of the year is a bit better than the OAM … because, it’s the community nominating you and looking at you as community-minded people. The OAM is the government in my eyes.”
Aunty Joyce added, “It’s been a lot of hard work, worthwhile work and we will continue to fight and do what we need to do for our children and our people within the western suburbs. We thrive on it.”
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Uncle Graham and Aunty Joyce continued to work with various service providers across Brimbank to advocate for the needs and improvements in service delivery for local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
The council said both elders had been pivotal in helping tackle broader community issues such as health, education, unemployment, racism and oppression; making many people feel positive and connected with the community.
Uncle Graham said their programs were important in the community.
“When we do our programs, it’s basically letting our people know who they are, but in the process and at the same time we are a multicultural country now.
“We’ve set the programs up to show the non-Indigenous community who we are as First Nations people and we are going to continue to do that through our programs.”
Otto Riddell was named the young citizen of the year for work as a young leader in the community.
Otto is seen as someone who inspires and empowers youth across Brimbank through activities with the Crystal Queer program.
Through the program Otto has shared the journey as someone who identifies as being both transgender and asexual, and has empowered, educated and advocated for the LGBTQIA+ community.
Otto is part of the headspace Youth Advisory Group and has not only advocated for positive change to the LGBTQIA+ community, but also for children at school and those who identify as having disability, such as autism.
Otto was a driving force in the Brimbank Youth Services: LGBTIQA+ survey completed last year.
In presenting the award, the council chief executive Helen Morrissey said Otto’s non-judgemental attitude and openness inspires others, both young and older, to see things from a different perspective.
