Obituary for Jeremy Long

Jeremy Phillip Merrick Long died on the 9th September 2021 aged eighty-nine after a professional life spent with the Commonwealth public service working in Aboriginal affairs.1 Nobody, Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal, who has risen to senior levels in the administration of Aboriginal affairs, has had a wider, richer or more appropriate experience of the complexities faced in this area of public administration or a more comprehensive awareness of the full diversity of Aboriginal life-circumstances across the nation. His experience ranged from working with people at first contact, monitoring the lives of Aboriginal people on cattle stations, and dealing with people in town, to being superintendent of an Aboriginal settlement, researching policy recommendations, and investigating the future of institutionalised settlements along the eastern coast of Australia. It began with experience as a cadet patrol officer in the Northern Territory and culminated in becoming the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. The last four years of his time in the public service were as Commissioner for Community Relations with the Human Rights Commission.