The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Elizabeth Hoffman grew up at the Cummeragunja Reserve in New South Wales. She moved to Melbourne in 1971, and started to work with the Aborigines Advancement League (AAL) as Matron of the Gladys Mitchell Youth Hostel. She was elected President of the AAL Management Committee three times, and at different times was Vice President and Treasurer, until taking up employment with the League as Director in 1976. She was the Chairperson of the Aboriginal Legal Service for three years, and the Chairperson of the Aboriginal Housing Co-operative. She also worked with the National Aboriginal and Island Women’s Council and the Women’s Council at Echuca, and was a member of the Steering Committee of the Aboriginal Housing Board and of the local Aboriginal Land Council. She also worked as a Commissioner with the Aboriginal Development Commission. In the early 1970s, she co-founded the Elizabeth Hoffman House, Aboriginal women’s refuge in Melbourne which in 1984 became Incorporated and independent of the AAL. She was one of the 250 women included in the Victorian Honour Roll of Women which was read out in Victoria’s Parliament House on 7 May 2001. She was awarded a National NAIDOC Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2006 and her collection of poetry To Our Koori Sons was published in 2009.

Events

• 2001

  Inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women