‘A champion of Aboriginal rights’: Alice Springs leader Geoffrey Shaw dies aged 79

Geoff Shaw at home in the Mt Nancy town camp outside Alice Springs in 2015. Photograph: Helen Davidson/The Guardian

One of Central Australia’s most highly respected Aboriginal leaders and Vietnam war veteran has died.

Kaytetye and Arrernte man Geoffrey Shaw OAM was born in the dry Todd riverbed in 1945 and began his military career at 18 in 1964, serving until the early 1970s before returning home to devote himself to his community in Alice Springs.