Leon Carmen (born 1949) is an Australian author who is best known for the hoax that resulted from his authorship of the novel ''My Own Sweet Time''—which he wrote under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

"Wanda Koolmatrie".

Background

Carmen grew up in Torrens Park in Adelaide and attended

Unley High School Unley High School is a public coeducational secondary school, located in the Adelaide suburb of Netherby in South Australia. It is administered by the Department of Education, with an enrolment of 1,562 students and a teaching staff of 114, as ...

. His father died when he was fourteen. Carmen married at age 20, however the marriage ended in divorce. He played keyboard in various bands including Red Angel Panic, and has had a number of jobs, including: public servant, taxi-driver, and fruit-picker. In around 1995, Carmen moved to Sydney.

''My Own Sweet Time''

In 1994 the Aboriginal publishing house

Magabala Books Magabala Books is an Indigenous Australian publishing house based in Broome, Western Australia, founded in 1987. Their stated objective is "restoring, preserving and maintaining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures". The name ''Magabal ...

published ''My Own Sweet Time'', supposedly a biographical account by the author Wanda Koolmatrie—an Aboriginal woman born to the

Pitjantjatjara The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are v ...

people in 1949. The book details how Koolmatrie was taken from her mother in 1950 to be raised by white foster parents, and thus became one of the

Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Gover ...

. In 1996 the author received the Dobbie Literary Award for the work. When Koolmatrie offered Magabala a sequel to the book in 1997, the publisher discovered the hoax and the affair was made public. The fact that "Koolmatrie" turned out to be a white Australian taxi driver named Leon Carmen turned into a "national scandal". In a later interview, Carmen said that he was trying to break into the literary market and believed he could not have got his book published without the subterfuge. Carmen states that his friend and agent, John Bayley, was aware of the plan to write the work under a pseudonym, and helped to select the novel's title. In 1997, a "Brief of Evidence" regarding "the 'Wanda' Case" was compiled by the

NSW Police The New South Wales Police Force is a law enforcement agency of the state of New South Wales, Australia, established in 1862. With more than 17,000 police officers, it is the largest police organisation in Australia, policing an area of 801,60 ...

against Bayley. In 2004 Bayley published a book about the affair, ''Daylight Corroboree: A first-hand account of the "Wanda Koolmatrie" hoax''. The first edition of ''My Own Sweet Time'' included supportive quotes on the rear cover from the Australian author

Dorothy Hewett Dorothy Coade Hewett (21 May 1923 – 25 August 2002) was an Australian playwright, poet and author. She wrote in a number of different literary styles: Modernist poetry, modernism, socialist realism, Expressionism (theatre), expressionism a ...

and from the Australian academic and author Philip Morrissey—without the latter's permission. The work was included in an anthology of Australian autobiography, and was used as a text for the NSW Higher School Certificate examination.

References

Citations Sources * *
Philip Morrissey, ‘Stalking Aboriginal Culture: The Wanda Koolmatrie Affair’, Australian Feminist Studies, 18:42, 2003.

External links

* at the National Library of Australia. {{DEFAULTSORT:Carmen, Leon Literary forgeries 20th-century pseudonymous writers Living people Writers from Adelaide 1949 births People educated at Unley High School