Justine Saunders

Justine Florence Saunders (20 February 1953 – 15 April 2007) was an Australian stage, television and film actress. She was a member of the Woppaburra, an Australian Aboriginal people, from the Kanomie clan of Great Keppel Island in Queensland. On the small screen she appeared in numerous series, mini-series and telemovies.

Screen roles
Saunders having started her career in theatre, made her screen debut in the television serial Rush in 1974, but first came to prominence as a cast member of soap opera Number 96 in 1976, as Rhonda Jackson. in a brief story arc portraying a character defending the rights of indigenous Australians. Subsequently, in 1986 she became best known for her role as social worker Pamela Madigan in the serial Prisoner.

Other television credits include: Skyways, Women of the Sun (1981), Farscape, Blue Heelers, and MDA.

Her film work includes The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and The Fringe Dwellers.

Personal
Saunders was born next to a railway track. At the age of 11, as a member of the Stolen Generation, she was removed from her mother Heather and taken to Brisbane and placed in a convent. Heather was not told of Justine's whereabouts for more than ten years, and spent much of that time searching for her.

In April 2007, Saunders died of cancer at Hawkesbury District Hospital, Sydney, aged 54.

Order of Australia Medal
In 1991, Saunders was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), for her services to the performing arts, her services to the National Aboriginal Theatre, and for her assistance in setting up the Black Theatre and the Aboriginal National Theatre Trust.

In 2000, through the indigenous Senator Aden Ridgeway, she returned the medal in protest at the emotional turmoil her mother was suffering over the Howard government's denial of the term "stolen generation".

Other awards

 * 1985 inaugural Aboriginal Artist of the Year award.
 * 1999 Red Ochre Award - Australia Council for the Arts