November 4, 2014
by Marcus Priaulx
Former Cherbourg resident Lolly West’s bittersweet story shows why education is so important for a happier future.
She wants people to learn from her story and realise a good education is the key to having a calm, peaceful life.
“It opens doors to a lot of opportunities,” she said. “Instead of waiting for that silver platter you need to grab every opportunity that comes your way.”
Lolly, 50, is now three years into part-time study for a law degree but she has overcome huge hardships to get to this point.
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Lolly’s grandmother, Janey Hart, was a strong Christian woman who raised her in a strict but gentle manner and would host anywhere up to 20 children at a time within her home.
“She never smacked any one of us,” Lolly said, “but we did as we were told.”
Lolly said this was because her grandmother led by example and every child respected her.
However, things started to go pear-shaped for Lolly when she naively entered a destructive relationship at 16.
After six years she escaped to Brisbane with her four children but her partner found her just before Christmas. He asked to take the youngsters home for the remainder of the holiday season and Lolly agreed.
When she returned to Cherbourg to bring the children home for school she found Children’s Services had taken custody of them.
Life then became a long, hard battle for Lolly, who had limited education as she had left school at 14 to help her grandmother pay the bills.
She found herself confronting a legal system she didn’t understand in an effort to have her children returned.
“I wasn’t a drug user, I wasn’t an alcoholic, I knew I’d done nothing wrong,” Lolly said.
“I was determined not to let the ignorance of the system take my children away.”
Lolly took on one court battle after another in a constant fight with a system that kept her children with other carers.
At age 32 she finally got her wish and they were returned to her as “little teenagers”.
But life remained a struggle.
The children felt Lolly had abandoned them and didn’t love them.
“They resented me,” Lolly said.
She felt hurt after all she had done to have them reunited with her and became depressed.
“I’d been fighting the system for so long and still didn’t know or have any knowledge of why they took the children away from me,” she said.
“I’ve always been a good person; a very giving person, very protective of my family.”
Lolly struggled emotionally but began to find her feet when she became involved with her son’s education and school.
He was seven years old at the time and was having problems.
Lolly was often called to the school to sort out problems and, in doing so, learned it needed parents to help in the tuckshop and with children’s reading and writing.
Lolly volunteered and spent most of her days within classes to keep her mind occupied. Her son’s behaviour settled with her presence and Lolly’s confidence built through her work.
Staff began to encourage her to become a teacher and Lolly took up the challenge. She studied part-time at the Australian Catholic University in Mitchelton while continuing to volunteer at the school for five years.
Lolly was happy to do so because of the support it gave to her and her son.
She earned a Diploma of Education in 2009 and had developed a new-found thirst for learning.
Lolly enrolled to do a community work certificate and Diploma of Justice at the Indigenous Unit of Kangaroo Point TAFE. She then began to understand the legal jargon she had struggled with while trying to get her children back.
She decided to help people go through the same fight she did and became a court support officer with the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Women’s Legal & Advocacy Service.
“My role involved supporting women dealing with domestic violence or child safety in the courts of Brisbane,” Lolly said.
“I found it very fulfilling.
“People could relate to me because they found a genuine person to talk to and knew it would be confidential. My main focus was to educate them on how the legal system worked.
“That’s where I really started to find my passion. Years ago I didn’t know anything about it and now I was educating women who didn’t understand the legal system at all.
“I helped them a great deal.”
Lolly now has her eyes on getting a law degree.
However, becoming a lawyer is not her goal. Her aim is to help women understand the law so they can get a just result.
“Education is power,” Lolly said. “It’s like a weapon. I was a naïve, shy person but it gave me power to fight some really ignorant people. I’d let them have their say but when you fight them with fire you shut them down.
“That gives me real pleasure. I’m not a victim anymore.”
Lolly said she has now told her story to show people why they need to send their children to school every day, on time.
“If I’d been better educated I wouldn’t have had the troubles I’ve had,” she said.
“If I’d had a better education as a young girl then I wouldn’t have been so naïve.
“If I get a law degree I want to come back to Cherbourg State School and show the kids because Cherbourg will always be my home, even if I live in Brisbane.
“I want to show them how far I’ve come.”
