September 8, 2016
“Not Just Black And White”, a book by Cherbourg mother and daughter Lesley and Tammy Williams, has been shortlisted in this year’s Queensland Premier’s Award for a Published Work of State Significance.
Their book is one of five in the running for the $25,000 first prize.
The book was officially launched at Cherbourg in October last year by then-Mayor Ken Bone.
It tells the true story of Lesley William’s search for what happened to wages stolen from Indigenous people by the State Government.
As a young woman, Lesley was forced to leave Cherbourg to work as a domestic servant.
Like many Aboriginal workers at the time, she never saw her wages. They were kept “safe” by the State Government and then just disappeared.
“There was a work agreement between the government and the employer on behalf of the employee,” Lesley said.
“Three generations of my family were covered in that scheme.”
Desperation later drove Lesley to start searching for what had become of her wages.
She became inspired to dig deeper into her history when a neighbour gave her copies of records she did not know even existed, and was soon joined by her daughter.
During their nine-year search, Lesley and Tammy travelled to Michael Jackson’s home at Neverland in the USA, and ultimately to Geneva in Switzerland to address the United Nations.
Lesley’s quest helped ignite the State Government’s conscience on the issue and while a full reparation of the stolen wages has not been made, there is now open acknowledgement of what occurred and serious attempts have been made to redress the injustice done.
Lesley and Tammy’s book tells the story of their quest to find out what happened to Lesley’s wages with honesty and humour.
It has been described as “an extraordinary memoir about two women determined to make sure history would not be forgotten.”
The book is also a reminder that their quest was not only supported by Indigenous people, but by people from all over the South Burnett and Gympie.
Funding for their travel to Geneva came from donations and fundraisers held in Cherbourg, Murgon, Proston, Kingaroy, Nanango and Gympie.
While the book was still in manuscript form, it was submitted to the Queensland Literary Awards where it won the David Unaipon Award for an unpublished indigenous writer.
The University of Queensland Press then published the manuscript, where it sat at the top of their bestseller list for five weeks and is still ranked in the top position on UQP’s online sales list.
On Thursday, Queensland Premier and Arts Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the shortlists for two literary awards at the opening of the 54th annual Brisbane Writers Festival.
“The Queensland Literary Awards allow us to recognise outstanding writers, celebrate our stories and help to foster the next generation of writing talent,” the Premier said.
“Two literary awards close to my heart – the Queensland Premier’s Award for a Published Work of State Significance and Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Awards – were established last year to recognise important Queensland voices.
“The shortlisted nominees in these two awards demonstrate the diversity of story-tellers and high standard of young writing talent emerging in Queensland.”
The nominees are:
Queensland Premier’s Award for a Published Work of State Significance
- Not Just Black and White – Lesley and Tammy Williams
- Remotely Fashionable: A Story of Subtropical Style – Nadia Buick and Madeleine King
- All Fall Down – Matthew Condon
- Wasted: A Story of Alcohol, Grief and a Death in Brisbane – Elspeth Muir
- The Long Goodbye – P.J. Parker
Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Awards
- Emily Craven
- Sam George-Allen
- Anna Jacobson
- Michelle Law
- Andrew McMillen
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