[4] Her father, James Brown, was a second-generation Scottish-Australian who worked for Victorian Railways and was a communist involved in the labour movement.
[2] Inspired by her mother, Edna, Thorpe joined community leaders such as Geraldine Briggs and Margaret Tucker in protests for Aboriginal rights.
[5] Through her communist connections, she had been able to enter China and observe the 'barefoot doctors' program; from this experience came her concept of the Aboriginal Health Worker.
[2] Her daughter Marjorie Thorpe was a commissioner on the Stolen Generations inquiry that produced the Bringing Them Home report, and later a member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, and a preselected Australian Greens federal candidate for the electorate of Gippsland.
[6] Marjorie's daughter Lidia Thorpe became the first Indigenous woman elected to the Parliament of Victoria in 2018, and the first Victorian Aboriginal Senator in 2020.