Andrea Mason a force for social justice and first Aboriginal woman in Australia to be leader of a political party

Andrea Mason was CEO joined the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council ifrom 2010 to 2019.
Image courtesy Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council

Andrea Mason in 2004 was the first Aboriginal woman to lead an Australian political party in a federal election when she stood as Family First’s No.1 candidate for a South Australian senate seat.

The daughter of Ben Mason, a pastor involved in setting up the Aboriginal evangelical fellowship, Mason grew up in Western Australia before her family moved to Adelaide, where she completed her secondary education. She spent two years in Canberra at the Australian Institute of Sport on a netball scholarship.

In 1988, Mason graduated with a bachelor of arts in Aboriginal affairs and public administration from the then-South Australian institute of technology. She later returned to study and completed her bachelor of laws in 2002 at the University of Adelaide where she was instrumental in starting the Aboriginal law student liaison group. This led to the Law Society of South Australia’s Aboriginal law student mentorship that operated in all three South Australian law achools.

After graduation, Mason began working for Andrew Evans, a member of the South Australian Legislative Council and South Australian leader of the Family First Party, as a personal assistant. She also worked as coach in the federal government’s Indigenous women’s leadership program; policy officer in the community engagement branch of the then-family, community services and Indigenous affairs department; and as relationship manager for Reconciliation Australia.

She joined the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council in 2008, initially as a senior adviser and project manager, before becoming chief executive officer in 2010. There she has had a profound impact on Aboriginal justice.

Mason was named Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year in 2016 for her work in creating jobs, workforce planning, tenancy management and reconciliation action plans. She was named Northern Territory Australian of the Year 2017 and appointed co chairperson of the prime minister Indigenous advisory council.

Also that year, Adelaide University admitted Mason to the degree of doctor of university (honoris causa) for her outstanding contribution to Aboriginal, Australian and international communities through her commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice.

In 2019, Mason, a Ngaanyatjarra woman on her father’s side and Karonie on her mother’s, was appointed to serve as a commissioner to the royal commission into violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability.