Aunty Isabel Reid

Elder and advocate for the Stolen Generation

2021 NSW Senior Australian of the Year

Born in 1932, Aunty Isabel Reid is the oldest living survivor of those who were forcibly removed under the NSW Aborigines Protection Act 1909-1969 – children who were forcibly removed from their families because they were Aboriginal. Isabel, her sister Betty and brother Jack were taken on the way home from school. Their parents had no idea what had happened to them.

Isabel and Betty were sent to the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home, becoming domestic servants with their wages paid to the NSW Government.

As an Elder of the Wiradjuri people, Isabel has worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the Stolen Generation to help prevent it from happening again.

In 2013, she was made an inaugural director of the Coota Girls Aboriginal Corporation, and in 2016, she was appointed as an inaugural member and Chairperson of the Stolen Generations Advisory Committee. Her strong leadership was instrumental to the NSW Government offering a $74 million reparation package to those forcibly removed under the Aborigines Protection Act 1909-1969.

A natural leader and outstanding public speaker, Isabel is respected and loved by all.