This was published 4 years ago
First Aboriginal woman to manage cattle property pushes for change
The first Aboriginal woman to manage a cattle property in Australia wants to amend Australia's constitution and create a rehabilitation facility for Queensland’s low-risk Indigenous criminal offenders.
Keelen Mailman was recently awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia.
Keelen Marie Mailman, who has been the station manager at Mount Tabor Cattle Station in central Queensland since 1998, is no ordinary woman.
She was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) last month for her service to the Indigenous community of Queensland and was a finalist for Queensland Australian of the Year in 2007.
Ms Mailman grew up in Mount Tabor but moved back to Augathella, near Charleville, at the end of 1997.
"I grew up with a lot of racism in a country town and moved to Brisbane to give my children a better opportunity but I had a spiritual calling for home," she said.
"My friend's father Ray Robinson purchased the station in 1996 and I was asked to manage the property when I came back in 1997.
"I cleaned the property up in order to prove we could run the property and I helped with fencing, maintaining the bores and doing a service on them, cutting trees down and [working on] rails and swinging on a crowbar and shovel a good majority of the time."
Ms Mailman said she hoped that, after being nominated for the OAM by her daughter Kristy Mailman, her recognition could help her move forward in various causes.
"I think it’s quite special and it is hard yakka and I think if I can do that, with not much background and doing half of year 8, then hopefully I can be an inspiration to the younger generation," she said.
"A couple of things ... hold pretty deep on my mind and heavy on my heart, and I'd like the government to practise what they preach.
"I don't understand why the Constitution hasn't been recognised in our own country.
She said how the Native Title Act dealt with traditional owner groups needed to be "refreshed" and "fixed".
"All the points that they put in place for traditional owners to be recognised and get their native title rights is an absolute disgrace," she said.
"We've got heartache at the moment. Not just for my people but [those of the] Torres Strait [who have] been dismissed by their title and can never ever go back."
Ms Mailman said she was also fighting to stop the incarceration of Indigenous people in prisons.
"Statistics show prison systems are overloaded and we've been trying to open a rehabilitation facility here in Mount Tabor for Indigenous people," she said.
"This should've been off the ground years ago but it still hasn't happened ... the government needs to step up."
Ms Mailman, who said she had a rough childhood and suffered anxiety and child sexual abuse, hoped to help struggling children and make the world a better place.
"There’s light at the end of the tunnel. Dig a little deeper and never give up because you will get through it," she said.