"Dr O'Donoghue was a figure of grace, moral clarity, and extraordinary inner strength," Anthony Albanese said.

"She was like a rock that stood firm in the storm - sometimes even staring down the storm."

Dr O'Donoghue, a Yankunytjatjara woman, was a tireless campaigner for Indigenous rights.

She was Australian of the Year in 1984 and became the first Aboriginal person to address the General Assembly of the United Nations.

She was born in 1932 at De Rose Hill in the remote north-west corner of South Australia.

A member of the stolen generation, she was taken away from her mother at the age of two and did not see her again for 33 years.

They were reunited after a chance meeting with an aunt and uncle who recognised her in the South Australia town of Coober Pedy in the late 1960s.

She later said that the reunion after they had been torn apart brought "new meaning and a whole new dimension" to her life.

In 1954, she had become the first Aboriginal person to train as a nurse at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

She was driven towards activism by the racism she suffered.

She campaigned for the recognition of Aboriginal peoples in the 1967 referendum, and later joined the South Australian branch of the Federal Office of Aboriginal Affairs.

In 1977, she became the founding chairperson of the National Aboriginal Conference.

Dr O'Donoghue was the inaugural chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).

She played a pivotal role in the tense and complex negotiations that enabled the passing of prime minister Paul Keating's Native Title legislation.

She retired from public life in 2008. In 2022, the Lowitja O'Donoghue Foundation health research institute was established to mark her 90th birthday.

The Aboriginal activist and community leader Noel Pearson said: "She was our greatest leader of the modern era, the finale of which was her chairmanship of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission from its inception to the end of the Keating government in 1996."

She was much loved by her family.

"Our Aunty and Nana was the matriarch of our family, whom we have loved and looked up to our entire lives," the family said in a statement.

"We adored and admired her when we were young and have grown up full of never-ending pride as she became one of the most respected and influential Aboriginal leaders this country has ever known.

"We thank her for being a formidable leader who was never afraid to listen, speak and act. Always with strength, determination, grace, and dignity."

The Prime Minister's statement said: "Life threw significant challenges at her - not least a childhood in which she was separated from her family, her language, and even her own name.

"From the earliest days of her life, Dr O'Donoghue endured discrimination that would have given her every reason to lose faith in her country. Yet she never did."

The Minister for Indigenous Affairs Linda Burney said Dr O'Donoghue "was a fearless and passionate advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians."

She displayed "enormous courage, dignity and grace".