Patricia June O'Shane was born on 1941 and is a retired Australian teacher, barrister, public servant, jurist, and Aboriginal activist.
17 Facts About Pat O'Shane
1.
2.
Pat O'Shane was Australia's first Aboriginal magistrate, serving the Local Court in Sydney, New South Wales, between 1986 until her retirement in 2013.
3.
Patricia June O'Shane was born in Queensland in 1941 to Gladys, an Aboriginal woman, and her husband Patrick 'Tiger' O'Shane, an Irish boxer and unionist.
4.
Pat O'Shane is an Aboriginal Australian of the Kunjandji clan of the Kuku Yalanji people.
5.
Pat O'Shane's mother moved the family from Mossman to Cairns to enable her children to receive a good education.
6.
Pat O'Shane ended up the only Aboriginal Australian child in her age group graduating from her high school, gained a scholarship and studied at Kelvin Grove Teachers' College and the University of Queensland, before teaching at Cairns High School for eight years.
7.
When her mother died Pat O'Shane went into a deep depression and was hospitalised.
8.
Pat O'Shane began practising law as a barrister with the Aboriginal Legal Service in Sydney and then in Central Australia.
9.
Pat O'Shane was head of the New South Wales Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs from 1981 to 1986, before her appointment as a magistrate.
10.
Pat O'Shane was the Chancellor of the University of New England between 1994 and 2003.
11.
Pat O'Shane was elected to the Australian Constitutional Convention 1998, which considered the issue of Australia becoming a republic.
12.
Pat O'Shane was the first female Aboriginal teacher in Queensland; the first Aboriginal to earn a law degree; the first Aboriginal barrister; and the first woman and Aboriginal person to be the head of a government department in Australia, the New South Wales Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs.
13.
Pat O'Shane retired as a magistrate in January 2013, taking long service leave until she reached compulsory retirement age in mid-June.
14.
Pat O'Shane ran in the electorate of Leichhardt in North Queensland in the 2022 Australian Federal Election as a candidate for Socialist Alliance.
15.
Pat O'Shane married to Aboriginal activist and statesman Mick Miller on 5 May 1962 at St Monica's Catholic Cathedral in Cairns, and together they had two daughters, Lydia Caroline and Marilyn Rose Miller.
16.
Pat O'Shane was later executive director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts at the Australia Council.
17.
Pat O'Shane is the aunt of burn survivor Tjandamurra O'Shane, who survived being set on fire with petrol as a young child in 1996.