Patricia June O'Shane (born 1941) is a retired Australian teacher,

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

, public servant, jurist, and Aboriginal activist. She was Australia's first Aboriginal

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...

, serving the Local Court in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, between 1986 until her retirement in 2013. O'Shane was the first female Aboriginal teacher in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

; 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.

Early life and education

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. She is an Aboriginal Australian of the Kunjandji clan of the Kuku Yalanji people. O'Shane's mother moved the family from Mossman to

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

to enable her children to receive a good education. 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 (now

Queensland University of Technology The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It has two major campuses, a modern city campus in Gardens Point, Brisbane, Gardens Point ...

) and the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

, before teaching at Cairns High School for eight years. When her mother died O'Shane went into a deep depression and was hospitalised. On an Aboriginal Study Grant, O'Shane studied law at the University of New South Wales, graduated in 1976, and was admitted to the New South Wales bar.

Career

O'Shane began practising law as a barrister with the Aboriginal Legal Service in Sydney and then in

Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and ...

. O'Shane was head of the New South Wales Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs from 1981 to 1986, before her appointment as a magistrate. She was the Chancellor of the University of New England between 1994 and 2003. O'Shane was elected to the Australian Constitutional Convention 1998, which considered the issue of Australia becoming a republic. She advocated strongly for an Australian republic. In her opening address, she expressed a want for modification based on what she perceived as historical injustice and inadequacies within the Australian Constitution: Her decisions and behavior in court were sometimes controversial. A study in 2012 by Michael Eburn and Ruth Townsend of the Australian National University College of Law examined 56

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

appeals of cases heard before O'Shane between 1999 and 2012. Of the 56 appeals, 35 (62.5%) were upheld. Of the 16 criminal cases included, 14 appeals were upheld. Eburn and Townsend wrote: "The Supreme Court has found that O'Shane had got the law wrong in 14 out of the 16 criminal cases... In one case she dismissed a charge even though the accused had entered a plea of guilty". Supreme Court judges criticised O'Shane for "denying the prosecution procedural fairness," and "failure to comprehend the basis of the prosecution case or the evidence before her, use of intemperate language and making numerous errors of law." Eburn and Townsend compared the records of two other magistrates with similar experience and found only eight and nine appeals against them respectively. They called for O'Shane's resignation. In 2013 O'Shane was awarded a Deadly Award for lifetime achievement in leadership, being praised as a woman who "blazed a path for others to follow... she is a genuine and inspiring role model for others". Along with fellow Deadly 2013 winner

Archie Roach Archibald William Roach (8 January 1956 – 30 July 2022) was an Australian (Gunditjmara and Western Bundjalung people, Bundjalung) singer-songwriter and Aboriginal Australian, Aboriginal activist. Often referred to as "Uncle Archie", Roach wa ...

, she used the win to call for an end to the Northern Territory Intervention.

Firsts

O'Shane was the first female Aboriginal teacher in

After retirement

O'Shane retired as a magistrate in January 2013, taking

long service leave In Australia, long service leave (LSL) is a period of additional paid leave granted to employees who have completed an extended period of service with an employer. Under Australian legal system, Australian law, most employees are entitled to long ...

until she reached compulsory retirement age in mid-June. O'Shane ran in the electorate of Leichhardt in North Queensland in the 2022 Australian Federal Election as a candidate for Socialist Alliance.

Awards and honours

*1984:

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

, for public service in the field of Aboriginal welfare *1998: Voted one of Australia's living treasures by the National Trust *2001: Centenary Medal, for service to Australian society and higher education *2001: Victorian Honour Roll of Women *2013: Deadly Awards 2013, Marcia Langton Award For Lifetime Achievement in LeadershipAboriginal magistrate Pat O'Shane, Archie Roach honoured at Deadly Awards
''ABC News'', 11 September 2013. *2021: NAIDOC Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award

Personal life

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. Their marriage was dissolved in 1977, after several years of separation. Lydia was a co-founder of the Aboriginal National Theatre Trust, along with her friend and frequent collaborator, actor and director Rhoda Roberts. She was later executive director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts at the Australia Council. Marilyn is a dancer and choreographer who trained at NAISDA, danced with Bangarra until 1998, formed Fresh Dancers, and was chair of the NSW Ministry of the Arts dance committee for three years before moving back to Brisbane to become artistic director of Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts. She is the aunt of burn survivor Tjandamurra O'Shane, who survived being set on fire with petrol as a young child in 1996.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oshane, Pat 1941 births Living people Australian magistrates 20th-century Australian women judges 20th-century Australian judges 21st-century Australian women public servants 21st-century Australian public servants Australian republicans Members of the Order of Australia University of New South Wales Law School alumni Delegates to the Australian Constitutional Convention 1998 Chancellors of the University of New England (Australia) University of Queensland alumni Australian indigenous rights activists Australian women human rights activists Australian people of Irish descent People from Mossman, Queensland 21st-century Australian women judges 21st-century Australian judges