Aboriginal health leader Alma Thorpe awarded Honorary Doctorate

Victoria University (VU) has awarded an Honorary Doctorate to Alma Thorpe, Gunditjmara activist, Elder, ‘barefoot doctor’ and Aboriginal health leader. 

Alma received her qualification alongside more than 200 nursing, paramedicine and healthcare graduates at an afternoon graduation ceremony on 5 March 2025. 

The highest honour conferred by the University, the Honorary Doctorate recognises Alma Thorpe’s lifetime of work – her exceptional service to Aboriginal health, wellbeing, and self-determination. 

She was joined at the graduation ceremony by members of her close family, community, and Aboriginal Health workers and leaders, who were proud to celebrate formal recognition of Alma’s impact and legacy. 

It’s been a long time coming – Alma is turning 90 later this month – but as her granddaughter, Nioka Thorpe-Williams said, “becoming a doctor three weeks before you turn 90 is pretty special.”

A lifetime of activism – early years 

Born in 1935, Alma grew up in a very difficult time for Aboriginal people in Victoria characterised by poverty and state-sanctioned racism, and the oppressive impacts of the so-called “Half-Caste Act”. However, as a child and young adult, Alma’s family life and close-knit community in inner-city Fitzroy was loving, connected and supportive, and this has been a source of strength for her lifetime of work. 

Alma’s formal education ended when she was aged 12, and from then on, she worked in a shoe factory and then as a barmaid. She married Gunnai man Alister Thorpe at 18 and moved to the town of Yallourn. They had seven children together, and Alma later fostered two of her grand-children and was mum to many other community members. Her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren continue her work to advance First Nations’ self-determination in a wide range of fields. 

Speaking at a small gathering after the graduation ceremony, Alma highlighted her mother, Edna Brown’s commitment to justice. Edna set up the Aboriginal Funeral Fund in the 1960s, to ensure that Aboriginal people were buried with dignity: “My mother went around selling raffle tickets to set up the fund,” Alma remembers.  

The Funeral Fund guaranteed that Aboriginal people in Victoria were not buried as paupers and could go home to be buried. Edna’s work in this area was built on and eventually led to the establishment of the Weeroona Aboriginal Cemetery in 1992.

A different way of looking at health – rooted in connection & self-determination 

Returning to Fitzroy in the 1970s with her children, Alma began working together with Bruce McGuinness, Gary Foley, Geraldine Briggs, Margaret Briggs and other strong Aboriginal community members on Aboriginal-led, community-based health and education. 

This formidable group of Aboriginal intellectuals and activists set out to respond to an urgent unmet need for healthcare, establishing the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS) in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy. Alma travelled to China to see firsthand the work of the Barefoot Doctors – a program which trained over one million community members to deliver basic healthcare services within their communities. Taking inspiration from this and adapting it to the local community context, Alma pioneered the role of Aboriginal Health Worker at VAHS and co-founded the Aboriginal Health Worker Training Program, that was delivered through Koori Kollij. 

Robbie Thorpe, Alma’s son, remembers “it was incredible what they did, a health service on-the-ground at a time when Aboriginal people weren’t going to the hospitals, because of the way they were treated – very badly. We used to call [hospitals] the death factory, you didn’t come out of there, a lot of our people.” 

“Their philosophy around health was a holistic understanding. It was about treating the whole person, not just the ailment,” Robbie said. 

VAHS cared for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, and central to Alma’s legacy was her impact on many young men who were battling substance addiction. This has been honoured with the establishment of the Aunty Alma Thorpe Gathering Place at Dardi Munwurro in Preston by her nephew Boostie Thorpe, one of the ‘Parkies’ whose life was transformed by Alma. 

Alma’s daughter Glenda Thorpe spoke about the importance of identity to First Nations’ peoples’ health and wellbeing. 

"I was one of the first Aboriginal Health Workers and I am so proud of that. And the very special place of Fitzroy was, for the mob in Fitzroy, was about a connecting space. It was about identity. 

It is about what brings about the specialness in you. I think that relates a lot to who we are as Aboriginal people, it is about how you grow into a space. You could be the doctor, you could be the person that does all the coordinating, that was really important for people because people found their space."

“People are crying out for it again,” Glenda said.

Listening to communities in 150 rural & urban areas  

Seeing the positive health outcomes in Fitzroy with the VAHS model, Alma worked with communities around Australia to listen to their needs and was central to establishing the National Aboriginal and Islander Health Organisation, which has been recognised by the World Health Organization. 

Speaking at the Yoorrook Justice Commission, Alma explained. 

We wanted to look after our people. We set up over 150 health services all around Australia. We used to have meetings all through the country, and we used to talk about those types of things on a national level. And it wasn't a matter of that we were controlling the people in other [First Nations] Countries. It was them coming up with their idea of how they wanted to run their health services, particularly when you went up the coast of Western Australia and Fitzroy Crossing."

Robbie spoke about the time he spent travelling around Australia with his mum, setting up health services in rural and urban areas: 

 "The idea was: community control, community based, self determination and the principles of sovereignty – our place in this country. And I’ve been on that wagon ever since. And my mother’s legacy; she has made it a lot easier for a lot of people to understand our place in this country. I’m so proud of you mum,” Robbie said. 

Protecting the past; safeguarding the future – the Aboriginal History Archive  

 Alan Brown, who works in the VAHS and helped set up Koori Kollij said: 

I hope Aunt that you never underestimate your legacy. Rest assured that your influence, and your positive influence and the strength and the integrity that you bring to our community will never be forgotten and will always remain."

Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Unit’s Executive Director Karen Jackson and Research Director Clare Land led the nomination for the doctorate and formal recognition of Alma’s influence. 

“There’s so many stories that [Gary] Foley tells about the strong Aboriginal women – referring to you – who held the place; and held space; and did all the hard yards,” Karen said. 

 I am so proud that Victoria University has made you an Honorary Doctorate because you totally deserve that. Whenever I’m talking about who I am or where I come from I talk about being Yorta Yorta or Dja Dja Wurrung, but I learnt community control and self-determination in Aboriginal Fitzroy. So that’s how I know community is important."

To ensure that the amazing achievements of the Aboriginal Health Movement can be properly understood and upheld, Professor Gary Foley has worked with Alma and the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service to ensure that their archives are safely held at the Aboriginal History Archive.