Pat Eatock

June Patricia "Pat" Eatock (14 December 1937 – 17 March 2015) was an Australian indigenous activist and academic.

Early years

She was born in Redcliffe to Roderick Eatock, of Aboriginal and English descent, and Scottish migrant Elizabeth Stephenson Anderson. Having left school at the age of fourteen, she moved to Sydney at eighteen and married her cousin, Ron Eatock, with whom she had six children.

Career and activism

In 1972 she attended a land rights conference in Alice Springs, after which she left her husband and moved to Canberra. With her baby, Eatock joined the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra and participated in the protests against its removal.[1]

In 1972 she was the first indigenous woman to stand for federal parliament, running unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for Australian Capital Territory.[2][3]

She was the first non-matriculated mature-aged student to study at the Australian National University in 1973, and graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Arts. In 1975 Eatock attended the Alternative Tribune to the International Women's Year World Conference in Mexico City.[1] From 1978 to 1981 she was a project officer in the Aboriginal Unit of the Department of Social Security, and she was also a lecturer at Curtin University (1991–92, community development) and James Cook University (1997, Aboriginal studies).

From 1992 to 1996 she established and managed Perleeka Aboriginal Television.[4]

In 2011, Eatock was the lead litigant in a case against conservative columnist Andrew Bolt, in which she and others sued Bolt under the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) following a column alleging that fair-skinned indigenous Australians identified as Aboriginals for monetary gain. The court found for Eatock against Bolt, leading to widespread controversy and a campaign to amend the RDA.

Following an incident in 2012 Eatock became known as the “holder of the shoe” after then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard lost her shoe during a protest at the 40th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra.[5][6]

Personal life

Eatock died in 2015.[7]

References
  1. National Foundation for Australian Women and The University of Melbourne. "Eatock, Pat - Woman - The Australian Women's Register". www.womenaustralia.info. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  2. "A.C.T. CANDIDATES- 4". Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995). 1972-11-25. p. 10. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
  3. Eatock, Pat (1973), A small but stinging twig : reflections of a black campaigner, retrieved 18 July 2018
  4. Jordens, Ann-Mari (20 March 2015). "Eatock, Pat (1937-2015)". Australian Women's Register. Australian Women's Archive.
  5. "Pat Eatock's fight lives on". Green Left Weekly. 1046: 6. 24 Mar 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  6. Johnston, Matt (2012-01-27). "We'll sell Julia Gillard's shoe, says Aboriginal activists". Courier Mail. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
  7. "Aunty Pat Eatock passes away quietly after a lifetime of glorious noise making". New Matilda. 17 March 2015.
  • Eatock, Pat in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia


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