The only record of the birth of Robyrta Felton is a diary entry from a missionary in northern Queensland stating that, on August 14, 1931, "a baby girl was born".
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains images and names of people who have died. The story has been recorded with the permission of the deceased's family.
At a time of great oppression and enslavement of Aboriginal people, it was a good thing Ms Felton came out of her mother's womb with a swinging right hook.
"At the end of the day, if you liked her or didn't like her, you had to respect the fact that she was a fighter," her daughter Catrina Felton-Busch said.
As loved ones mourn Ms Felton's death at the age of 91, they remember a strong woman whose penchant for sticking it to the man saw her take on religious leaders and government officials while acting as a bridge for her people between pre- and post-colonial life.
Beating the odds
Born and raised on the Mornington Island Mission, Ms Felton was only allowed to attend school until year 4, after which she remained at the facility as a carer for younger children.
"I think she was always an activist from the day she was born. She was a petulant child and always challenged the rules in the dormitory," Ms Felton-Busch said.
At the age of 15, Ms Felton was permitted to work as a carer at the Mornington Island hospital.
"She always dreamed of being a doctor, but the laws would not allow her to get a formal education," Ms Felton-Busch said.
Despite the odds stacked against her, when Ms Felton and her mother moved to the north-west Queensland town of Cloncurry in the 1950s, she won the favour of the town's doctor.
"My nana went to work for the hospital laundry and my mum went to work for Dr Harvey Sutton at the Cloncurry Hospital," she said.
Dr Sutton arranged for Ms Felton to be made exempt from the oppressive Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897.
"Aboriginal people couldn't direct their own lives, everything they did was directed by the missionaries, by the government, by the chief protector of Aborigines [a term used at the time]," Ms Felton-Busch said.
"And within the scope of that, mum was able to achieve a lot and advocate for her people."
A bridge between two worlds
While living in Mount Isa for a time, Ms Felton founded the Jalanga Housing Co-op and the Aboriginal Legal Aid Service.
"She'd often go and help people translate court processes," Ms Felton-Busch said.
She also worked closely with Father Brown of the Jesuit priests, as well as the Franciscan Missionaries who were prominent in Mount Isa at the time.
After several years of living across north-west Queensland and the Northern Territory, and raising a family, Ms Felton carted her husband "Curly" and their five children back to Mornington Island in the mid-1970s.
There she started the Yuenmenda (Elder Clanswomen) Aboriginal Corporation which established an Indigenous women's shelter and childcare services. She also served on the ATSIC regional council.
"She had a political stoush with the missionaries. She had all sorts of issues with the church but she stayed and became one of the councillors on the Mornington Shire Council and then went on to become deputy mayor," Ms Felton-Busch said.
Armed with a wealth of traditional knowledge about her region, passed down to her from pre-colonial generations, Ms Felton played a lead role in winning back the rights of her people.
The fact that she was fluent in Lardil, Yangkaal, Gangalidda and Kaiadilt languages and could also "speak the Queen's English" allowed her to provide crucial evidence in court that saw her people's land and sea rights legally returned to them.
"Her passion has come from living in a community where disempowerment was such a part of Aboriginal lives, but change was also possible, and she had a history of fighting and winning … and I think that fuelled her," Ms Felton-Busch said.
Empowering through education
Being the daughter of a high achiever was no easy task for Ms Felton-Busch.
"She always held us to a higher standard, she made us go to university … we had no choice in that matter," Ms Felton-Busch, who is an associate professor and director of the Murtupuni Centre for Rural and Remote Health at James Cook University, said.
"She saw education as the key, because when she was little, she was denied that."
Ms Felton was sharp-tongued and passionate about her people until the end.
"She was always ringing Bob Katter and Tony McGrady, she'd ring ministers, any of the stalwarts of this region," Ms Felton-Busch said.
"I'm 60. And she was bossing me around the other day about advocating more," she said.
Despite this "bossing", government officials became fond of Ms Felton.
Katter's Australian Party MP Bob Katter said Ms Felton was an inspiration to the thousands of people who worked with her during her lifetime.
"She nursed me as a kid and maintained a bit of an oversighting role throughout my life," he said.
"She was intellectual powerhouse, a person who never got tired of fighting for the good."
Ms Felton-Busch agrees.
"She was always in charge. When she passed, she passed her own way," she said.
"I had just stepped out, and she went her way.
"One thing she was always wanting is Aboriginal people to be proud of their culture.
"And she had great faith in young people and them as the future."
