Patricia Lees Patricia Lees i(8886543 works by) (birth name: Patricia Janke) (a.k.a. Pattie Lees)
Born: Established: 1948 ;
Gender: Female
Heritage: Aboriginal ; Aboriginal Yadhaykenu ; Torres Strait Islander ; Torres Strait Islander Meriam
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BiographyHistory

Patricia (Pattie) Lees (née Janke) was born in Cairns, North Queensland, and lived in Mount Isa since 1976.

Pattie was removed from her family, along with four siblings, when she was ten years, and sent to live on Palm Island. Her brother, who was eleven at the time, protested and for his resistance he was handcuffed and taken. Lees was also subject to the Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act (1939) and the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islander’s Affairs Act (1965).

At 19 Lees joined the Women’s Royal Australian Navy and served for two years at a number of naval land bases around Australia. She has represented Australia as a delegate at several United Nations development forums and has been CEO of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation for Children and Youth Services.

Lees' story was recorded by the National Library of Australia for the Bringing Them Home oral history project and appeared in the associated publication Many Voices: Reflections on experiences of Indigenous child separation; edited by Doreen Mellor and Anna Haebich (2002). Lees' account of her experiences is also the subject of the 2020 work A Question of Colour which she co-authored with her son Adam C. Lees.

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

2017 recipient Order of Australia Member of the Order of Australia (AM) For significant service to the Indigenous community of Mount Isa, and to youth, aged care, legal and health organisations.
2015 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards Unpublished Indigenous Writer : David Unaipon Award For A Question of Colour (with Adam C. Lees)

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon A Question of Colour : My Journey to Belonging Broome : Magabala Books , 2020 19693250 2020 single work autobiography

''These two children have been in our Home in Townsville for more than two years, and in view of their very dark colouring, have not been assimilated into the white race. Every effort has been made to place them in a foster home without success because of their colour.' Queensland State Children's Department correspondence, 21 June 1960.

'The removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families remains a dark chapter in Australia's history. Pattie Lees was just ten-years-old when she and her four siblings were separated from their mother on the grounds of neglect and placed into State care. Believing she was being shipped and exiled to Africa, Pattie was ultimately fated to spend the rest of her childhood on the island once dubbed 'Australia's Alcatraz' -Palm Island Aboriginal Settlement, off the coast of Queensland.

'A Question of Colour: My Journey to Belonging provides a first-hand account of Pattie's experiences as a 'fair-skinned Aboriginal' during Australia's assimilationist policy era and recounts her survival following a decade of sexual, physical and emotional abuse as a Ward of the State. A Question of Colour is a deeply moving and powerful testimony to the resilience of a young girl, her identity and her journey to belong.' (Publication summary)

2021 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards The Courier-Mail People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year
2021 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance
2020 shortlisted Western Australian Premier's Book Awards Premier's Prize for an Emerging Writer
2021 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction
Last amended 22 Aug 2024 07:50:26
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