Try and try again: new councillor Gerald Power chosen as Orange's deputy mayor

It took four attempts for Cr Power to become the first Indigenous man to be elected to Orange City Council and his upward trajectory continued at Tuesday night's opening meeting of the new term when he was chosen as deputy mayor.

Cr Power beat four other candidates for the job with Cr Steve Peterson, Cr Kevin Duffy, Cr Jeff Whitton and Cr Tony Mileto, who lost the final vote by lot, nominating to deputise for mayor Jason Hamling.

"I was surprised because I wasn't actually going to run until two candidates called me up and asked would I consider it," Cr Power said, explaining the phone calls planted the seed.

"I felt then I could be a role model for young people, those who may be come from the wrong side of the tracks, which I did up there," he said.

"To say hey, if you put your mind to it, stay dedicated, stay committed to your dreams you can do this, you can change your destiny and provide a better future for a lot of people."

The 'up there' Cr Power was referring to was north Queensland town Bowen where he grew up.

"I'm a direct descendant of the Kanakas, my great, great grandfather was blackbirded out as a slave at the age of 13 from the Solomon Islands," he said

"My Aboriginality is from the Juru nation."

Cr Power worked on farms in the area before taking up fruit picking as a way to see more of Australia, working at Renmark in South Australia and Griffith before arriving in Nashdale.

"I've been down this way ... altogether for 39 years."

During that time, Cr Power has worked for the NSW Government for 16 years and also served as a minister of religion for 26 years, establishing two churches in Orange.

The loss of daughters Gemima in 2001 and Amy in 2002 led to him withdrawing from the church.

"I just felt I needed to be looked after myself. I was always looking after people, caring and nurturing people," he said.

"I just needed me to be looked after by me. That was my journey and everybody respected that."

Cr Power said the girls had a disability with Amy attending Anson Street School and that was one of the reason he was passionate about disability issues.

He is also passionate about being a role model for the indigenous community, members of which rallied around him to form the first all-Indigenous ticket, included his son Isaac.

"I was stuck, I said I need help and went to the family and all the mob came up and said we'll jump on your ticket for you...

"[A lot of people] thought it was going to hurt me, they said you can't have that, comments like 'you'll never get a vote with a full aboriginal ticket'.

"It was quite interesting."

Fortunately, Cr Power said, the Orange community has embraced diversity.

"That was shown in that first meeting, you really could see we're not aligned to anything, we're just passionate for the community, even the mayor to hear him talk," Cr Power said referring to mayor Jason Hamling's opening speech.

During that speech, Cr Hamling spoke of his upbringing in Orange, providing a touching moment when thanking his family for its support.

"We just want to do the job for the community," Cr Power said.

"I said to the mayor last night, mate, I'm 110 per cent supporting you.

"I was also speaking to aboriginal people last night.

"I said now we know, now that the aboriginal community can see that I've got it, I've got on and I can do this here, they will now think that I can do it now."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:

HAVE YOUR SAY

Send a letter to the editor using the form below