Eileen Cummings

Eileen Cummings was born in Arnhem Land in the Barunga-Wugularr region where she lived with her mother, Florrie Lindsay and her mother's husband, Chuckerduck.[4] She is a member of the 'Stolen Generation' having been removed from her family as a four-and-a-half year old from a Mainoru Station in central Arnhem Land in 1949.[5][6] At first, she related that she was excited to be going for a ride when a red truck came to pick her up without her mother's knowledge, but then she started to miss her mother and cry after they left Mainoru.[4] She was taken to Maranboy Police Station and then lived at Croker Island.[7] Her name was changed and she was taught to be ashamed of her Aboriginal identity while growing up in the institution.[8] Cummings lived at the institution until she was fifteen, and then stayed in a foster home in Darwin until she was eighteen.[9] When she was an adult, she returned to see her mother, Lindsay.[10]

Cummings was the first Indigenous person in the Northern Territory to qualify as a pre-school teacher.[2] She also worked as a policy adviser to the Northern Territory Chief Minister in the Office of Women's Policies where she gave advice on women's issues.[11][9] She coordinated the consultation in the development of the Aboriginal Family Violence Strategy and was a co-author.[2][12]

In the 2013 Federal Election, Cummings was unsuccessful as Australian First Nations Political Party candidate for the Division of Solomon in the House of Representatives.[13][14]

She is the Chairperson of the Northern Territory Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation.[15][16] She works to bring compensation to those who are part of the Stolen Generation and on Sorry Day, 2017, filed a case with the NT Stolen Generations organization against the federal government.[17]

She is a University Fellow of Charles Darwin University.[18]