The Australian Women's Register

8 sound files (476 min) Pat Eatock born at Redcliffe, Queensland in 1937 talks about her family history and early life; leaving school at 14 to work in various factories; at 18 moving to Sydney and marrying, Ron Eatock; how by the time she was 26 she had five children; beginning to publicly identify as an Aboriginal in 1957; attending a meeting of the Union of Australian Women at which Faith Bandler spoke; her political activities being limited by her family commitments until 1972; attending a Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) land rights conference in Alice Springs with her sixth child; the break-up of her marriage; joining the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra and participating in the protests against its removal; living initially in the Canberra headquarters of the Women’s Liberation movement. Eatock speaks about becoming the first Aboriginal candidate to stand for Federal parliament in the ACT, being endorsed by the newly-formed Women’s Electoral Lobby; in 1973 enrolling in a Bachelor of Arts degree at the Australian National University, graduating in 1977; conferences she has attended; her public service career; lecturing in community development at Curtin University, Western Australia; in December 1992, establishing and managing Perleeka Aboriginal Television, until its demise in 1996; teaching Aboriginal Studies at James Cook University in 1997; in 1999 undertaking a one-year preliminary course with the intention of beginning a Masters degree in history at the University of Queensland; her views on her life now, what she has achieved, and the inequality of women in contemporary society.