Adam C. Lees Adam C. Lees i(8886584 works by) (a.k.a. Adam Carter Lees)
Gender: Male
Heritage: Aboriginal ; Torres Strait Islander
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BiographyHistory

Adam C. Lees has worked in the mining and resources sector as a community relations and sustainability professional since 2000. He has worked on projects in Angola, Zambia, Gabon, Ethiopia, Guinea, Liberia and Samoa. 

Adam was raised in Mount Isa and holds tertiary qualifications from Monash University (Melbourne), the Queensland University of Technology and Griffith University (Brisbane). He has a passion for photography and has travelled more than 60 countries.

In 2020, he co-authored A Question of Colour : My Journey to Belonging with his mother, Pattie Lees, which was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards Douglas Stewart Prize for non-fiction, and Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance.

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

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 20 May 2024 10:59:53
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