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.