Artworks

Adelaide artist Meg Brassil painted this powerful portrait of Sr Patricia Pak Poy for the Archibald Portrait Prize in 2007. The work acknowledges Sr Patricia’s significant advocacy for a global ban on landmines, a cause that brought attention to the devastating impact of these weapons on the Cambodian people. She is depicted alongside two wartime amputees, highlighting the human consequences of landmines and the importance of her campaign.

Describing her subject, Brassil noted that Sr Patricia was “only 140 cm tall, physically tiny, but she exudes the most incredible warm humanity and energy” (McDonald, 2007, p. 11).

Sr Patricia Pak Poy was an Old Scholar of St Aloysius College and served as Principal from 1970 to 1976. Following her leadership of the College, she devoted herself to social justice initiatives, particularly in Asia, where she became acutely aware of the urgent need for landmine clearance in Cambodia. She subsequently became the inaugural National Coordinator of the Australian Network of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and launched a petition calling for the total ban of anti-personnel landmines.

Her contributions to peace and humanitarian advocacy were recognised in 1998 when she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia and awarded the Returned Services League Anzac Peace Prize. In 2002, she received the Human Rights Award from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, now known as the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Following Sr Patricia’s death, the painting was generously donated to St Aloysius College by Sr Patricia’s family in 2026.