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Linda Burney, First Female Indigenous Lower House MP in Australia

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Linda Burney, First Female Indigenous Lower House MP in Australia

Source: BBC

The first Aboriginal woman elected to Australia's lower house of parliament has promised to bring the "fighting spirit of her clan" to political life.

In her maiden speech, Linda Burney wore a traditional kangaroo-skin cloak with her personal totem, the white cockatoo, known as the noisy messenger bird.

She lambasted calls for the Racial Discrimination Act to be watered down.

She warned that indigenous Australians still suffered disproportionately high rates of poverty and ill-health.

Usual protocol in the House of Representatives in Canberra was relaxed to allow a woman from Ms Burney's Wiradjuri clan to sing a welcome from the public gallery.

Referring to her people, she promised to bring the Wiradjuri fighting spirit into federal parliament.

Click here to read the full article published by the BBC on 31 August 2016. 

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The first Aboriginal woman elected to Australia's lower house of parliament has promised to bring the "fighting spirit of her clan" to political life.

In her maiden speech, Linda Burney wore a traditional kangaroo-skin cloak with her personal totem, the white cockatoo, known as the noisy messenger bird.

She lambasted calls for the Racial Discrimination Act to be watered down.

She warned that indigenous Australians still suffered disproportionately high rates of poverty and ill-health.

Usual protocol in the House of Representatives in Canberra was relaxed to allow a woman from Ms Burney's Wiradjuri clan to sing a welcome from the public gallery.

Referring to her people, she promised to bring the Wiradjuri fighting spirit into federal parliament.

Click here to read the full article published by the BBC on 31 August 2016. 

News
Region