Leila Rankine

Leila Rankine, of Ngarrindjeri and Kaurna descent, was born on 31 December 1932 in the Adelaide suburb of Rose Park. She was the daughter of Rebecca Kumi (née Harris) and Daniel Wilson. She grew up and was educated at the Point McLeay Mission Station (now Raukkan) on Lake Alexandrina.{{Citation |last=Newsome |first=Jennifer K. |title=Dorothy Leila Rankine (1932–1993) |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rankine-dorothy-leila-18148 |access-date=2024-03-31 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}

Married and with five children, Rankine joined the Council of Aboriginal Women of South Australia at its inception in 1966. Alongside Ruby Hammond and Gladys Elphick, she strove to improve education for Aboriginal people.

With her sister, Veronica Brodie, she lobbied for the establishment of the Warriappendi School, developed to better meet the needs of Aboriginal children.{{Cite web |title=The History |url=https://warriappendi.sa.edu.au/about/the-history/ |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=Warriappendi School |language=en-AU}}

Rankine was a founding member of the Adelaide Aboriginal Orchestra in 1972{{Cite web |title=Rankine, Dorothy Leila |url=https://www.womenaustralia.info/entries/rankine-dorothy-leila/ |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=The Australian Women's Register}} and co-founded the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM). In both, students were taught by Aboriginal Elders and encouraged to reconnect with their cultural heritage.{{Cite web |title=Learning the Indigenous Way |url=https://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/collections-archives/exhibitions/let-our-songs-speak-for-us/learning-the-indigenous-way |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=Special Collections and Archives {{!}} University of Adelaide |language=en}} Musician Bart Willoughby {{post-nominals| country=AUS|OAM}}, who attended CASM, credits Rankine helping to care for him and guide him during this period.{{cite interview|first= Bart|last=Willoughby | title=NIMA Presents The Sound Of Indigenous Australia – Now & Before: Interview with Bart Willoughby | website=Scenestr | date=7 September 2017 | url=https://scenestr.com.au/music/nima-presents-the-sound-of-indigenous-australia-now-before | access-date=10 May 2024}}

In 1975, Rankine was appointed a member of the Aboriginal Arts Board, which had been established two years earlier.{{cite news |date=24 June 1975 |title=Aboriginal Arts Board |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article255846804 |accessdate=24 August 2024 |newspaper=Torres News |location=Queensland, Australia |page=13 |via=National Library of Australia |volume=Q |issue=25}}{{Cite web |date=1973-05-03 |title=Aboriginal Arts Board |url=https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/original/00002908.pdf |access-date=2024-08-23 |website=Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet}} She was served on the steering committee for the Festival of Pacific Arts in 1988.{{Cite journal |title=Festival of Pacific Arts |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1284018428 |journal=Australian Foreign Affairs Record |volume=56 |issue=9 |pages=920 |via=Trove}}

Rankine was featured in the 1975 documentary film, Sister If Only You Knew, on Aboriginal women who had grown up on reserves but later moved to the city to give their children better opportunities.{{Cite journal |last=Hall |first=Sandra |author-link=Sandra Hall (writer) |date=1975-09-27 |title=Preaching worth bearing |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1443285062 |journal=The Bulletin |volume=97 |issue=4976 |pages=54 |via=Trove}} She contributed to the 1981 film Wrong Side of the Road, which won the Australian Film Institute's jury prize at the 1981 AFI Awards.{{cite news |date=1 October 1981 |title=Wrong Side of the Road |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article213733533 |accessdate=24 August 2024 |newspaper=Filmnews |location=New South Wales, Australia |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia |volume=11 |issue=10}}

Rankine married James William Rankine (died 1969) in 1954. They had five children before moving to Adelaide in 1965.

Their daughter Aunty Leila Gayle Rankine was a lifelong advocate for Aboriginal people with disabilities, and chair of the First Peoples Disability Network.{{Cite web |title=Board Members & Staff |url=https://fpdn.org.au/board-members-staff/ |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=First Peoples Disability Network |language=en-AU}} Another daughter, Veronica Rankine, became played tenor saxophone in the highly successful reggae rock band No Fixed Address, led by Bart Willoughby.{{cite web| url=https://aso.gov.au/titles/music/we-have-survived/notes/| website=Australian Screen Online| title= We Have Survived (1981): Curator's notes| publisher= NFSA}} She died in 2001, and was posthumously inducted into the SA Music Hall of Fame.{{cite web | last=Hetherington | first=James | title=SA legends into Music Hall of Fame | website=AdelaideNow | date=29 May 2016 | url=https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/messenger/city/no-fixed-address-inducted-into-sa-music-hall-of-fame/news-story/452e59ceb5b62f8631d1646e7d67cdf5?nk=5ae3a65c7ddc699f6f78d257a838da6d-1715338496 | access-date=10 May 2024}}

Rankine suffered from diabetes and complications led to the amputation of a leg.{{Cite web |title=Leila D. Rankine |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A58273 |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=AustLit|publisher=The University of Queensland}} She died on 15 January 1993 and her ashes were scattered on the Coorong.{{Cite web |last=Hemming |first=Steve |title=Inventing Ethnography |url=https://www.api-network.com/main/pdf/scholars/jas48_hemming.pdf |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=Australian Public Intellectual Network}}

A rehabilitation facility, the Leila Rankine House of Hope was opened in 2018 at Monarto and run by the Aboriginal Sobriety Group,{{Cite web |title=Rehabilitation centres for men/women run by South Australia's Aboriginal Sobriety Group at Monarto |url=https://adelaideaz.com/articles/rehabilitation-centres-for-both-men-and-women-run-by-the-aboriginal-sobriety-group-at-monarto--south-australia--from-2018 |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=Adelaide AZ |language=English}} on whose board she had earlier served.

The Leila Rankine Award for Excellence in SACE Stage 2 Aboriginal Studies was established in her memory. Administered by Humanities and Social Sciences SA, it recognises both the "highest achieving student" and "their teacher for excellence in teaching".{{Cite web |title=HASS SA Awards |url=https://hass-sa.asn.au/about/educator_awards/ |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=HASS SA}}

{{Reflist}}

• Photograph of [https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/3801730 Leila Rankine, founder of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music, University of Adelaide, 1986] by Juno Gemes

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Category:1932 births

Category:1993 deaths

Category:20th-century Australian musicians

Category:Australian music educators

Category:Australian women poets