October 6, 2016
Mother and daughter writing team Lesley and Tammy Williams, from Cherbourg, have won the prestigious $25,000 Queensland Premier’s Award for their book, “Not Just Black and White”.
The win was announced on Wednesday evening at a gala ceremony at the State Library in Brisbane.
The Queensland Premier’s Award is for a work of State significance that has a Queensland focus and celebrates important Queensland stories, history and voices.
” ‘Not Just Black And White’ deals with the Stolen Wages of many Indigenous workers in Queensland whose salaries were controlled by Protection Acts, including taking and controlling their wages and savings,” Innovation Minister Leeanne Enoch said,
“Aunty Lesley Williams’ story is of a long struggle to recover these wages, both for herself and other Indigenous workers.
“Aunty Lesley and her daughter Tammy have written a searing account of a period of Queensland’s history and of a fight for social justice for Indigenous workers, while they movingly share a very personal memoir of a mother and daughter.
“The Queensland Government acknowledges the past injustices of the Acts and is working towards a more inclusive future for all Queenslanders with ‘Not Just Black And White’ an important voice in telling this story.”
Lesley and her grandson Kgiaum accepted the award on behalf of Tammy, who was ill.
She then read out a speech written by Tammy as well as sharing her own thanks.
“For more than 20 years, Mum had the audacity to dream of being an author, notwithstanding her limited formal education,” Lesley read.
“She valued the importance of literature.
“In our culture where many of our old traditions and stories have been lost over time with the passing of our old people, Mum was adamant that the story of our Aboriginal domestic servants and labourers who were forced to work for little or no wages would not be lost and forgotten.
“Her vision is to have these stories in school libraries throughout Queensland and on the national curriculum.”
Tammy recalled that not everyone shared that vision … and it was not until in 2014 when their unpublished manuscript won the David Unaipon Award for an unpublished Indigenous writer that things changed. This led to The University of Queensland Press publishing the work “and our amazing journey as published authors began”.
The book was launched in the Old Boys Dormitory at Cherbourg in October 2015.
Copies of “Not Just Black And White” can be bought at The Ration Shed Museum.
- Related article: Mum And Daughter Are A Winning Combination
