From assimilation towards reconciliation with Amy Levai, nee O’Donoghue (1930–2013), South Australia’s first qualified Aboriginal infant teacher

This article honours Amy Levai, nee O’Donoghue (1930–2013) who was a member of the Stolen Generations and South Australia’s first Aboriginal woman to qualify as an infant teacher. Beginning with Amy’s childhood at Colebrook Home and schooling, the article highlights her agency and resilience in countering racism to qualify and teach in the South Australian education department from January 1958. With the marriage bar still in place she was required to resign in 1965, but rejoined the state school system in the early 1970s. Negotiating nationwide policy shifts from assimilation to reconciliation, and concomitant education and curriculum reforms, Amy Levai taught in several schools including the Kaurna Plains Aboriginal school which opened in 1986. Always focussed on education as the key to social justice for Aboriginal and white Australians, Amy’s reconciliation activism during her retirement is foregrounded in the final section of the article.