Feature Article
Lester (Charlie) Leon (1900–1982)
Lester (Charlie) Leon (1900-1982), Aboriginal activist, was born on 20 June 1900 at Forster, New South Wales, son of Samuel Leon, probably a Forster sawmill worker, and Ada Simon of Taree. His family origins were both Aboriginal and Chinese. Alongside some formal education, he learned from the Worimi people about civility, the bush and the stars. Hostile white neighbours enforced a re-gazettal of the Forster Aboriginal reserve in 1911. He remembered this incident of racial hatred.