Gloria Ouida Lee

As a child the government attempted to force Lee and her siblings Ada and Dempsey away to live at The Bungalow, an institution for Aboriginal children. Her father protected them from being taken from him by threatening to shoot the policeman who was sent to take the children. Lee would later attend school as a part of the 'European' class taught by Ida Standley in the mornings rather than with the "half-caste" children in the afternoons.

Ranjika died in childbirth in 1914 and in 1918 Ah Hong sold his market garden and took his three children to China, to be cared for by relatives. Her father spent a year in China with Lee and her siblings, and then returned to Alice Springs alone in 1920. While Lee lived in China, she went to school, learning to read and write in Cantonese, she remained in school until the age of 15 or 16. After completing her education, she helped with household duties, as was customary at the time.

Life in Alice Springs

Lee decided to return to Alice Springs in 1929. Lee was the first Aboriginal woman in Alice Springs to own a house. She purchased the land herself with her earnings from mining and hospital work, and she managed and supervised the construction of her house herself. She struggled to fit in with Aboriginal people who considered her Chinese while Chinese people viewed her as Aboriginal.

Lee became pregnant with the child of Englishman Fred 'Lofty' Purdy; she was rejected by her father for not marrying a Chinese man. Lee and Purdy married at the Catholic Church in Alice Springs and lived in a simple house, with dirt floors, near her father's market garden which was now located on Gap Road. The purpose of the centre is to provide Indigenous people with the knowledge and technologies for creating sustainable food production and healthy lifestyles. The centre was built using sustainable architectural design practices. It is powered completely on solar energy, uses composting toilets, and a grey water system for watering the food gardens.

Many of Lee's descendants live in around the Northern Territory and Alice Springs.