Selina Hassan

Selina Hassan (22 February 1901 – 30 May 1996) was a businesswoman and Chinese community leader from Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

Biography Hassan was the daughter, and one of several children, to Emiline Lee Hang Gong (also known as Emily Louey) and Arthur Edward Lee Hang Gong, who was born in Victoria. Her father was a businessman, police constable and interpreter in Darwin and, together, Emiline and Arthur were involved in tin mining in West Arm where they operated the Wheel of Fortune mine. In 1902 or 1903 the family made significant profits from the mine and travelled with their children to Hong Kong in 1905; while there Hassan's youngest sister Florence died and so did her father. In 1908 Emiline returned to Australia and left Hassan and two of her brothers, to live with their father's second wife; they did not return to Darwin until 1910.

In 1919 Hassan travelled to Canton (Guangzhou) to marry Ali Hassan, an Islamic, Chinese-Indian man who had immigrated to Australia from Hong Kong on a pearl lugger and was, at the time of their wedding, working as the manager of Darwin's only butcher. He was more than twice her and it is unclear whether Hassan realised that he had married Omaka Sagaguchi in 1903 in Darwin and that she was still alive.

Hassan's husband died suddenly of a stroke in 1929, at the age of 53, when the children were young and he left he the majority of his estate, including extensive property holdings on Cavenagh Street. This led to a protracted legal battle between Hassan and her husband's first wife who was now living in Japan, who was formally acknowledged as the legal wife of Ali Hassan, between 1930 and 1935. Ultimately Hassan was successful and able to keep what her husband had left her.

Hassan was also an active member of the Kuomintang branch in Darwin and she served as secretary in 1930 and, in 1932 when she presented an address at a banquet for WP Chen, the consul-general for China in Australia, she praised the party for their comparatively progressive views about the role of women in society.

In February 1938 Hassan remarried, this time to Hamdan Bin Mahomed Amid, who was an indentured Malaysian pearler. When he completed his indenture he was forced to leave Australia and in 1940 Hassan and her children joined him in Singapore and part of their motivation for travelling there was so that the children could learn more about their shared Islamic faith. They were ultimately forced to stay there during the Japanese occupation but avoided some of the worst treatment inflicted on the Chinese population as they were living within the Malay Quarter. While there the government compulsorily acquired her land in Darwin and, when she sought legal redress, she was awarded significantly below what it was worth.