Lorna Lippmann

Lorna Sylvia Lippmann (21 December 1921 – 16 June 2004) was an Australian anthropology researcher, writer and campaigner for the rights of Aboriginal Australians. She was convenor of the Legislative Reform Committee of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI), campaigned for the 1967 Australian referendum (Aboriginals) on the legal status of Indigenous Australians, and worked as assistant director of Monash University's Centre for Research into Aboriginal Affairs (now known as the Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies). She was the author of works including Words or Blows: Racial Attitudes in Australia and Generations of Resistance: The Aboriginal Struggle for Justice (1981).

Early life, family and education Lippmann was born on 21 December 1921 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Her father was born in Russia and had arrived in Australia in 1939, aged 3, after his Orthodox Jewish family fled from pogroms. Her mother was born in Australia and had Yorkshire and Jewish heritage.

Lippmann matriculated from the local Vaucluse convent school, where she had been taught by French Catholic nuns, when she was aged 14. After eight months working as a teaching aide at Yarra Primary School, She joined the newly formed Aboriginal Advancement League (AAL) in the late 1950s and campaigned to prevent children from being taken away from their families. She was later promoted to assistant director of the Centre.

Lippman published books based on her research projects, with her most important being Words or Blows: Racial Attitudes in Australia (1973) and Generations of Resistance: The Aboriginal Struggle for Justice (1981). and poet and author Kevin Gilbert wrote of the work that 'Mrs Lippmann is one of the very few whites in this country who have arrived at a clear understanding of what a truly meaningful Aboriginal policy must provide for the Aboriginal people'. The Aim Is Understanding: Techniques to Promote Better Intergroup Relations (1977), Australia & New Zealand Book Company, Sydney. Generations of Resistance: The Aboriginal Struggle for Justice (1981).