2021-06-29
Celebrating a life of struggle and solidarity (1923 – 2020)
By Juanita Doorey, GWA member and member of former WA CARE, with thanks to Peter Limb, Raymond Suttner and Paul Kaplan.
Long-time Greens’ supporter and former Greens WA member, Sheila Suttner passed away in March 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was taking hold and Perth went into lockdown. At nearly 97, Sheila had spent decades of her life fighting against the apartheid regime, both in South Africa and after migrating to Perth in October, 1984. She was also a strong advocate for indigenous rights and social justice.
On Sunday 20 June 2021, friends and comrades of Sheila gathered in Perth to pay tribute to her life of activism. Speaking on behalf of GWA, Giz Watson recalled hearing Sheila speak about apartheid for the first time, in a packed hall in Elleker (near Albany) in the mid-1980s. Giz recalled feeling very inspired and impressed that Sheila had travelled such a long way to talk to people about the anti-apartheid struggle. In 2002, Sheila joined Greens WA and was an active member for several years.
For Sheila and her family, the anti-apartheid struggle was very close to home. Her son Raymond, a senior law lecturer, and in the leadership of the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party and the United Democratic Front, was arrested and jailed in 1975 for seven and a half years, and again in 1986. Sheila joined the Human Rights Committee of SA, campaigning to free political prisoners. When Raymond was first released in 1983, it was Sheila who hosted him at Jubilee Hall, University of Witwatersrand where she was the Dean of the women’s residence. Raymond writes ‘…throughout my incarceration my mother worked tirelessly to improve our conditions and expose threats to political prisoners.’
Sheila’s younger son Alan also refused to serve in the army of the apartheid state that had tortured his brother Raymond and many others and came to Australia in the 1970s. Sheila followed in 1984, settling in Perth. A core member of WA’s Campaign Against Racial Exploitation (WA CARE), she shared Raymond’s prison letters when he was jailed the second time. These letters gave members a deeper understanding of conditions in South Africa and for political prisoners. Sheila was also very prominent in the Free the Children campaign when the South African regime arrested and detained without trial thousands of young black activists in the late 1980s.
With Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in 1990 and election as President of South Africa, Sheila was invited to his inauguration ceremony on 10th May 1994.
Raymond became Mandela’s speech writer and the ANC’s head of political education and was later South Africa’s Ambassador to Sweden.
Sheila’s activism and passion for social justice did not stop with the dismantling of apartheid and a democratically elected government in South Africa. She embraced environmental issues, indigenous rights (the Stolen Generation, the Old Swan Brewery dispute, Treaty and land rights) and women’s rights, speaking at many rallies, including for International Women’s Day. She was also active in WAVES, a WA based group advocating for voluntary euthanasia (renamed Dying with Dignity WA) and was thrilled with the passage of the WA Voluntary Assisted Dying Act in 2019.
Writing for Sheila’s memorial event on 20 June, her son Raymond reflects:
‘Sheila Suttner was never a passive person or an onlooker who watched what she found abhorrent. She lived life to the full. What we need to take away from her life is her willingness to tirelessly act where she could, to remedy what she believed was wrong and do what she could to ensure all lived with dignity and respect. There was no way she could be a ‘bystander’.
Sheila was a friend and comrade to many and will be greatly missed.
References:
Peter Limb, The Anti-Apartheid Movement in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. The Road to Democracy in South Africa, Volume 3, International Solidarity Part ll. UniSA Press, June 2008.
Raymond Suttner, Inside Apartheid’s Prison. First published 2001 and updated edition published by Jacana Media, 2017.
Header photo: Sheila (far left), Senator Pat Giles, Raymond Suttner (centre), at anti-apartheid rally and march in Fremantle, 1989, after Raymond’s release from prison and visit to Perth, WA.
[Opinions expressed are those of the author and not official policy of Greens WA]