In a reflective interview on Living Black with Karla Grant, the veteran nurse, activist and 2024 NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award winner reflected on her decades of advocacy - from the referendum campaign to helping establish the Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern.
A proud Meriam woman, Flower was the first Torres Strait Islander to receive the national honour.
“I think it was the biggest compliment I’ve ever been [given],” she said.
In the 1960s, Flower worked closely with leaders like Faith Bandler, Pastor Doug Nicholls and Joe McGinness as part of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI). Their campaigning helped deliver the 1967 referendum — a landmark moment that saw over 90% of Australians vote to remove two discriminatory clauses from the Constitution.
“It meant that women could have child endowment, there could be a pension given to widows. It meant people could bank money,” she said.
“They could not control their own money. They could not leave wills. They were considered, uh, not having the capacity to make wills. So all this sort of restrictive legislation had to be done away with. And it was.”
But despite that victory, she says the same systemic injustices remain today.
“We were working hard to ensure that their health was looked over,” she said. “But they were being sent back into the same environment, which had not changed.”
She described a system still failing to meet the needs of First Nations people - fragmented, underfunded, and not up to scratch.
“It’s still piecemeal. It’s a bit here and a bit there,” she said.
“Crumbs off the table.”
Flower was also a founding member of the Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern, alongside Mum Shirl, Gordon Briscoe and others.
The clinic opened in the evenings, and she recalled those early nights when no one came.
“They’d poke their heads in the door, and we explained what we... Mum Shirl rounded up some people, mainly family... gradually people came. We had families and uh, and so on it went.”
The service became a culturally safe haven — especially for people who had been rejected or mistreated elsewhere, including members of the queer community.
“I'll never forget the first lot of young men who decided they were going to change over to being female,” she said. “There was nowhere else for them to go... but they were very welcome. They were made to be part of the family... Nobody judged them there. And they'd come and be treated in exactly the same way as other people.”
She also played a key role in mentoring and training Aboriginal nurses and health workers, helping to build an Indigenous health workforce where none had existed.
Now in her 80s, Auntie Dulcie says the future is still full of possibility — if the work continues.
“We’re in a time of change,” she said. “We’ll lose a few battles, but we’ll win too.”
Living Black airs Mondays at 8.30pm on NITV, replays on Tuesday 10.35pm on SBS and is available on SBS On Demand.
