Vale Pat Lowe

Author Pat Lowe has died.

Magabala, publisher of Lowe’s books, writes:

We are heartbroken to share the news of the passing of our dear friend and long-time collaborator Pat Lowe.

Pat was a one-of-a-kind Kimberley local, author and environmentalist. Born in 1942, she grew up in England but dreamt of seeing the world. After a stint teaching in East Africa, she boarded a ship in 1972 and sailed to Fremantle, Australia.

Her work as a psychologist for the Department of Community Welfare, and later for the WA Prisons Department was a pivotal moment in her life. During this period she met renowned Walmajarri painter Jimmy Pike. They moved to the Kimberley in the late 70s and Pat fell in love with the boabs, termites and natural beauty of the region.

Jimmy and Pat lived for 3 years at Kurlku in the Southern Kimberley’s Great Sandy Desert, where she learnt Walmajarri and steeped herself in the Culture and stories of Jimmy’s family, many of whom had experienced first contact.

She shared these stories and experiences in the many books she published with Jimmy at Magabala, including You Call It Desert: We Used to Live There; Out of the Desert: Stories from the Walmajarri Exodus; Yinti: Desert Child; Yinti: Desert Dog; Yinti: Desert Cowboy; Two Sisters; and Girl from the Great Sandy Desert. Their junior fiction title, Yinti: Desert Dog, won the 1998 Children’s Award in the Western Australian Book Awards and was a Notable in the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards.

Pat was extremely particular about the correct use of grammar and was renowned for her editorial skills and discourse on commas. An author and co-founding member of local/micro publisher Backroom Press, Pat also ran grammar classes and was on the committee for Corrugated Lines, Broome’s writers’ festival.

In the mid 90s she became one of the founding members of Environs Kimberley, a Broome-based organisation that continues to fight for environmental conservation in the Kimberley to this day. She was a director on their board for decades and edited the EK Newsletter for 29 years.

Her final book with Magabala, What I See on Walmajarri Country, was released the week she passed away, and is a beautiful celebration of Jimmy and Country.

We will miss Pat’s deadpan humour delivered with impeccable timing; her acerbic wit; no longer will we muse over the decline in grammar standards; no more tea at her kitchen table, nor fruit cake cut with practical love straight from the fridge; no more “bush” discussions or debates on “big business” being society’s moral compass; no more being in her home amongst the Kimberley dogs who adopted her; and no more Pat walking her friends to their cars and watching them leave.

The soul journey of a thousand stars starts with leaving. We are never ready to let go. We hope Pat’s Walmajarri cowboy is waiting with his humour, their desert dogs and his practical honesty. We trust they are together and their conversations carried away on a gentle desert breeze.

We miss you Pat.

Category: Daily obituary Local news