Pat Dodson

Patrick Lionel Djargun Dodson (born 29 January 1948) is an Australian Indigenous rights activist and former politician. He is often referred to as the "father of reconciliation" owing to his commitment to reconciliation in Australia. He was a Senator for Western Australia from 2016 to 2024, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He is the brother of Mick Dodson.

Dodson is a Aboriginal elder from Broome, Western Australia, who in his younger days was for a short while the first Aboriginal Australian Catholic priest. Dodson was chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and a Commissioner into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. In 2008 he was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize, and in 2009 the John Curtin Medal. The Parliament of Western Australia appointed Dodson to the Australian Senate on 2 May 2016, following the retirement of Joe Bullock. On 28 November 2023, Dodson announced his retirement from the Senate, which took effect on 26 January 2024, owing to the need for cancer treatment.

Early life and education Patrick Lionel Djargun Dodson was born on 29 January 1948 in Broome, one of seven children. He is a Yawuru man. His father, John "Snowy" Dodson, was born in Launceston, Tasmania, and his mother, Patricia, was an Aboriginal Australian woman. His grandfather, Paddy Djiagween, was a leader of the Yawura people. When introduced to Queen Elizabeth II when she visited Broome in 1963, he simply asked: "Why can't we have the same rights as the white man?". Dodson's family moved to Katherine, Northern Territory, when Pat was two, to escape Western Australian laws banning mixed-race families. His father had previously been imprisoned for 18 months for "cohabiting with a native woman".

The Dodson children were orphaned after the deaths of both parents only three months apart in 1960 – first their father, and then mother. He was also captain of the Australian rules football team at the school, He left the priesthood in 1981 due to conflicts between Catholicism and his Aboriginal spiritual beliefs. Dodson insisted that many ancient Aboriginal rites celebrated the same spiritual force as Christians worshipped. Commissioner into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, 1989 Founding chair, Lingiari Foundation, an Indigenous non-government advocacy and research foundation (2001–2016) Inaugural director of the Indigenous Policy, Dialogue and Research Unit at the University of New South Wales (2009–2012) Chair, Yawuru Native Title Holders Body Corporate (2010–2013) (report published 2012 ) Chair, Ecotrust Australia (as of 2011) and the full report in October 2021.

Politics On 2 March 2016, Dodson was announced as the replacement for Joe Bullock as a Labor senator for Western Australia, following Bullock's resignation. The Parliament of Western Australia appointed Dodson to fill the casual vacancy in the Australian Senate on 2 May 2016. He was sworn in as a senator on the same day, and sat as a Labor senator for Western Australia. He retained his seat at the 2016 federal election. He has served on a number of Senate committees, notably as joint chair of the Joint Select Committee into Constitutional Recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Dodson was added to the shadow ministry in May 2016, as a shadow assistant minister. He was initially appointed shadow parliamentary secretary to the Leader of the Opposition, and in July 2016 was shadow assistant minister for Indigenous affairs and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Opposition leader Bill Shorten promised to appoint Dodson as Minister for Indigenous Affairs if the ALP won the 2019 federal election. This did not eventuate, and Dodson, while re-elected to the Senate, did not stand for re-election to the Labor frontbench. As the shadow assistant minister for reconciliation and constitutional recognition, Dodson supported the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full. He also served on several senate committees. Owing to illness he was not able to participate fully in the campaign for the Yes vote in the 2023 Voice referendum, and was very disappointed in the result.

Post-retirement activities In May 2025, Dodson appeared on the ABC Television current affairs program 7.30. He called on the Albanese government to continue implementing the remaining requests of the Uluru Statement: a national truth-telling commission (Makarrata) and a treaty. He also urged him to set up regional assemblies, as described by Tom Calma and Marcia Langton in their 2021 report submitted to the Morrison government. by constructive dialogue and mutual respect.

In 2004, a portrait of Dodson, then aged 56, was painted by Melbourne-based artist Zhou Xiaoping, which was gifted to the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra by the Lingiari Foundation in 2015.

In January 2012 Dodson gave the inaugural Gandhi Oration at the University of New South Wales. In the same year, UNSW awarded him an honorary professorship at the end of his term at the Indigenous Policy and Dialogue Research Unit, and later that year an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.

In early 2023, Dodson was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, followed by an infection of the oesophagus and shingles. He was treated with chemotherapy and returned from medical leave to campaign for the "Yes" vote at the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum.