Founding member of the Painters and Dockers punk rock band, Williamstown’s Paulie Stewart has been awarded an OAM for service to the community and performing arts.
“The first thing that I’d really like to do is acknowledge the unknown Australian who 10 years ago donated their organs because I got a liver,” he said.
Now a project officer with Jesuit Social Services, Stewart has a longstanding connection with the Alma nuns in East Timor stemming from the death of his older brother.
Sound recordist Anthony Stewart, 21, was among the Balibo Five, a group of Australian journalists reporting on Indonesian military action killed in East Timor in 1975.
Stewart said his recognition should go towards the nuns who were his inspiration.
“I’ve got the craziest life,“ he said. “I go from full-on punk rock gigs with the Painters and Dockers where it’s pandemonium and then this week I’m hanging out with these nuns.
“And I reckon the nuns are more punk, myself, because they don’t follow the rules, they don’t take any shit from men – they just do their thing without complaining.”
Stewart said he asked his daughter, Aretha Stewart Brown, if he should accept his Australia Day gong.
Two years ago, Aretha, a Gumbaynggirr woman, made international headlines when she led a march of about 50,000 in Melbourne on Australia Day calling for the date to be changed.
“She said, accept it and use it to promote the nuns and the good stuff they do,” Stewart said.
