Kenneth George Wyatt AM, MP (born 4 August 1952). An Indigenous Australian, he is the first Aboriginal Australian to be elected to the House of Representatives and the first Aboriginal federal minister.
He was born at Roelands Mission farm, a former home for young indigenous children removed from their families, located near Bunbary, 200 km south of Perth.
His mother, Mona Abdullah, was one of the Stolen Generations of Aboriginal children removed from their parents and relocated to Roelands. Her surname, Abdullah, is from an ancestor who migrated from India to help lay the trans-Australia telegraph line . He was a cameleer .
Mona met her husband Don at Roelands. Don’s heritage is Yamatji and Irish ancestry. His mother’s family heritage is Wongi and Noongar ancestry.
Wyatt was a career public servant growing to the positions of WA Director of Aboriginal Education, Director of the WA Office of Aboriginal Health and then moving to the same post with NSW Health (after a ‘gap year’ at the age of 50).
In 1996 Wyatt was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia for services to Aboriginal health. He received the Centenary Medal in 2001.
He won his first election as a Liberal candidate in the 2010 federal election.
Wyatt has served as the Minister for Aged Care and Australia’s first Minister for Indigenous Health. He previously served as the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care between September 2015 and January 2017.
Photo: (SBS) Taking up his seat in the 43rd Australian Parliament in 2010, Wyatt wore a traditional Booka – a kangaroo skin coat with feathers from a red-tailed black cockatoo, signifying a leadership role in Noongar culture. The cloak had been presented to him by Noongar elders.
