A celebration of appreciation was held for the retiring director of Aboriginal outreach agency Daydawn Advocacy Centre in Perth last week.
Archbishop Emeritus Barry Hickey joined many Sisters of Mercy, friends and volunteers in the meeting room at St Mary’s Cathedral on July 31 to bid farewell to Sr Dolores Coffey RSM.
Sr Dolores, from County Meath, Ireland, was professed in 1967 and then came out to Victoria Square.
“I started in Victoria Square [site of Mercy school, Mercedes College and St Mary’s Cathedral] and I ended in Victoria Square,” she said.
With a background in education and social justice, she has also worked with the First Nation peoples in Canada, as well as refugees in North America, together with the Jesuits.
Sr Dolores was appointed the Director of Daydawn Advocacy Centre in 2007.
An initiative of the Perth archdiocese, Daydawn Advocacy Centre promotes the individual rights and full participation of the Indigenous population in society, especially the Noongar people of the South West.
“We are all precious,” Archbishop Emeritus Hickey said in his address.
“Daydawn is a different agency, it’s an advocacy; the people on the bottom of the rung are a priority and Sr Dolores has taken on this priority.”
Sr Dolores said she hadn’t made any plans yet regarding her retirement but she leaves with fond memories.
“I’m going to miss the people, the amazing advocates and the Indigenous families.”
The future of Daydawn remains bright: “It will continue advocating for the Indigenous families with government and non-government agencies,” she said.
“She’s just full of spirit and love; so giving,” Sharon Ross-O’Beirne, a volunteer at Daydawn told The Record.