The family of celebrated First Nations advocate Rosalie Kunoth-Monks has remembered the prominent campaigner as a caring and wise champion of Indigenous rights.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains images and names of people who have died. Ms Kunoth-Monks' family has granted the ABC permission to use her name and image.
Ms Kunoth-Monks died this week in the Alice Springs hospital aged 85.
A proud Arrernte Anmatjere woman, Ms Kunoth-Monks rose to fame at the age of 16 when she became the first Indigenous woman to play a lead role in a feature film — the 1955 Australian classic, Jedda.
"She actually tried to run away from the set a couple of times but they were in the sand hills and they tracked her and got her back."
A successful escape from the set of Jedda could have changed the course of her mother's life, but Ngarla believes Rosalie was always going to make an impact.
Ms Kunoth-Monks moved to Melbourne, where she was a nun for 10 years before leaving the convent and marrying Bill Monks.
They set up the first Aboriginal hostel in Victoria, and Ngarla remembers spending time there with her four siblings.
"She was very loving, extremely loving and not strict, but set boundaries for us," she said.
'She made life better for all of us'
Rosalie Kunoth-Monks enjoyed a successful and varied career.
She was a strong advocate for Indigenous communities and firmly believed that Indigenous children should learn their traditional languages.
She worked at the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, as an advisor on Indigenous affairs to Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Everingham and as chair of the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education.
'Such an amazing moment'
Rosalie grabbed national attention again on the ABC's Q&A program in 2014, when she delivered a stirring speech, rejecting suggestions that Indigenous people were not cooperating with non-Indigenous people to try to improve their quality of life.
"I was at home [watching] with my daughter Ruby and we just stopped and looked at each other," Ngarla said.
"It was such an amazing moment."
Ngarla's daughter, Amelia Rosemarie, remembers sitting in the Q&A audience.
"You could hear a pin drop … it's like she commanded quietness with her authority.
Big shoes to fill
Amelia was 12 when her grandmother started to mentor her and take her on speaking engagements across the country.
"When she passed, her spirit moved to me … I've taken over her roles. And those are quite big shoes to fill."
Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy said she had lost an inspirational friend, one who had made waves with her opposition to the Howard government's 2007 Northern Territory Intervention.
"She did become the consciousness for political leaders of all persuasions … and from then on I found that her voice became much louder and much stronger," she said.
NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner paid tribute in a post on social media, writing "we have lost a courageous elder and matriarch".
