Faithful servant of Aboriginal people awarded OAM

In June, Ceduna’s Dean Heyne was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his work with indigenous communities and his service to the Lutheran Church.

After a career as a teacher and principal that spanned almost 40 years across a range of Lutheran and government schools in South Australia, New Guinea and Victoria, Dean continues to serve the Lutheran Church and indigenous communities in the Ceduna district on South Australia's West Coast. Although his employment as a lay worker at the Yalata community finished in 2003 he remains closely connected to the Aboriginal people of the area.

Dean was born in Booleroo Centre, in the Southern Flinders region of South Australia, into a family of eight children. He completed his teacher training in the late 50s and his first job was in the South Australian outback town of Oodnadatta.

He moved to the state’s Far West Coast in 1960 to take on a teaching role at Koonibba. Outside of the classroom, Dean’s football talent and his leadership as a coach helped to cement his standing in the community. He was the only non-Aboriginal selection in the Koonibba Football Club’s ‘team of the century’ and has been described as a 'living legend', 'a mentor', 'perhaps the best ruckman on Eyre Peninsula' and 'irreplaceable at Koonibba'. Dean says getting involved in the indigenous community was a big part of being accepted by its people.

'What you did outside of work hours, what you did in the community told people that you were proud to be a part of that community, and that made an impact on my own way of life', he says.

In 1965 Dean set off for a five-year teaching assignment in Papua New Guinea and when he returned to Australia he worked in a range of schools, including South Australia's Good Shepherd Lutheran School at Para Vista and Lobethal Lutheran School and Darwin's St Andrew’s Lutheran Primary School.

'I taught in the country and in the city, in high schools and primary schools, in the Education Department and in Lutheran schools and with disabled children. I enjoyed teaching because each year you were given a new group of kids and for those twelve months it was my job to make education a happy experience and help the kids reach their potential. I still loved teaching when I stopped.'

Dean says there was hardly a year in his long teaching career when he didn’t work with indigenous children and he believes the way he interacts with the Aboriginal people changed throughout his teaching career and continues to evolve.

'As a 21-year-old full of energy I took on a leadership role, out in front. Over the years I learned it was better to walk beside people and today, in retirement, I walk behind them as an encourager.'

He believes there is still room for improvement in the relationship between the Lutheran Church of Australia and indigenous communities.

'The Lutheran Church has been very good at taking the gospel to Aboriginal people, but I don’t know if the church has totally embraced them yet', Dean says. 'We haven’t said to them, "Come in, let's see what the wider church can learn from how you’ve responded to the gospel".' They have a beautiful interpretation of the gospel. We say we accept them as brothers and sisters in Christ, but if I’ve got a brother or a sister I like to learn from them.'

Today Dean is an active leader in his local parish and is still closely connected to the indigenous communities the Far West Coast district.

'I’m not a hobby sort of bloke, and in retirement I’ve been taking things as they come. And you know what? Plenty of things have come along', he says.

The news of his OAM was unexpected.

'To say I was surprised would be a real understatement', Dean says.

But isn’t that the way with selfless, community-focused people? They never think of themselves.