Patricia O'Connor (elder)

Patricia O'Connor (née Yuke, born 1928) is an Australian Aboriginal elder of the Yugambeh people. She is known for her work in reviving the Yugambeh language and opening the Yugambeh Museum. In 2014 she received the NAIDOC Award for Female Elder of the Year, and in 2019 she was named a Queensland Great.[1]

Patricia O'Connor
O'Connor with the Queen's Baton at Yugambeh Museum in 2018
Born
Patricia Yuke

1928 (age 94–95)
Beaudesert, Queensland
NationalityAustralian
OccupationAboriginal elder
Known forReviving the Yugambeh language

Early and personal life

O'Connor was born Patricia Yuke in Beaudesert, Queensland in 1928 to mother Edith Graham and father Stanley Yuke,[2] who also had two other children. She grew up near Kooralbyn in the Scenic Rim Region.[3] She is a member of the Yugambeh people, an Australian Aboriginal group whose traditional lands are located in South East Queensland and the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales.[4] She later married Terrence Michael O'Connor, and had 7 children, including Rory O'Connor and a daughter, Faith.[5]

Career

O'Connor has spent much of her life working as an advocate for Yugambeh issues. In the 1980s, for example, she was part of a team which negotiated the largest ever repatriation of Aboriginal remains.[6] Then, in 1991, she and her sister Ysola Best led the organisation and installation of the Yugambeh War Memorial in Jebribillum Bora Park, Burleigh Heads, which was the first war memorial in Australia dedicated to Indigenous soldiers.[7]

In 2018 she played a prominent role during the Commonwealth Games, which were being held on the Gold Coast that year, as a traditional custodian of the land on which the event was being held.[8] She accompanied Queen Elizabeth II on stage at the launch of the Queen's Baton Relay at Buckingham Palace,[9] and the baton itself was made partly of macadamia wood because of a story told by O'Connor to its designers.[10] She also gave the Welcome to Country at the opening ceremony.

She is, however, probably best known for her work in restoring the Yugambeh language. In the 1980s, the language was considered by academics to be dead before O'Connor and her sister began to record it in an attempt at revival. She opened the Yugambeh Museum to help with this goal and, as a result, the language is now taught in numerous schools and education centres as of 2020.[11]

Honours

In 2014, O'Connor received the Female Elder of the Year award at the NAIDOC Awards.[12]

Then, in 2019, the Queensland Government named her a Queensland Great,[13] an honour which "recognises the efforts and achievements of remarkable individuals... for their invaluable contribution to the history and development of [the] state".[14]

References
  1. "2019 Queensland Greats recipients | Queensland Greats Awards". www.qld.gov.au. Retrieved 29 September 2022.
  2. Kerr, Judith (9 June 2019). "Indigenous elder Patricia O'Connor honoured with Queensland Day award". The Courier-Mail. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  3. "Anastacia Palaszczuk hands Beaudesert elder Queensland Great Award". Beaudesert Times. 7 June 2019. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  4. "Queensland Day award for indigenous woman".
  5. Austlit. "Rory O'Connor | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories". www.austlit.edu.au. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  6. "O'CONNOR AWARDED". F Magazine. 11 June 2019. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  7. "2019 Queensland Greats recipients". Queensland Government. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  8. "Elder's first overseas trip takes her to Buckingham Palace ceremony". NITV. Retrieved 29 September 2022.
  9. Larkins, Damien; Dyer, Nicole (6 March 2017). "2018 Commonwealth Games: Gold Coast Indigenous elders first to join Queen's baton relay launch ceremony". ABC News. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  10. Archibald-Binge, Ella (14 March 2017). "Elders take centre stage at Buckingham Palace". National Indigenous Television. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  11. Garcia, Jocelyn (25 January 2020). "How two Queensland women brought an Indigenous language back from the 'dead'". Brisbane Times. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  12. "Patricia O'Connor". NAIDOC. June 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  13. Lynch, Lydia (6 June 2019). "Journalist, billionaire and rugby legend, all Queensland Greats". Brisbane Times. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  14. "Queensland Greats Awards". Queensland Government. Archived from the original on 31 May 2017. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
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