Joyce Cheong Ah Toy / Joyce Chin

Joyce Chin is the daugher of Jimmy and Lily Ah Toy and the younger sister of Eddie Ah Toy. She was recognised as an outstanding educator in the Northern Territory.

Joyce Cheong Ah Toy

Image Courtesy of: Sophie's Blog

Joyce was educated at Pine Creek Primary School, Darwin High School and Adelaide Teachers’ College, graduating with a Diploma of Home Science in 1961 and a Teacher’s Certificate in 1962. She became the first Home Science teacher at Darwin High School in 1964 and, in 1970, the Northern Territory’s first full-time female adult education teacher. Her career spanned over 30 years across the Darwin Community College, Darwin Institute of Technology and the Northern Territory University, where she retired as Associate Dean of the School of Fashion and Library Studies and was the institution’s longest-serving staff member.

Joyce introduced the Territory’s first award course in fashion, upgrading qualifications to diploma level and enabling graduates to establish clothing businesses. She founded the Northern Territory Fashion Awards and played a key role in expanding women’s education, establishing child-minding facilities, introducing cookery courses for hospital staff and prisoners, and teaching sewing to female inmates. An accomplished designer, Joyce won numerous fashion awards, had work acquired by the Crafts Board of Australia, and designed official garments including NTU graduation stoles. Her contributions were recognised through multiple judging roles, advisory positions, and in 2004 by inclusion in the Tribute to Northern Territory Women.

Source: Territory Stories - Joyce Cheong Chin

Joyce Cheong Ah Toy (now Joyce Chin), born in Pine Creek, Northern Territory, on 12 July 1940, was a third-generation Chinese Australian from a family that migrated during the 1850 gold rush. Raised in a poor but education-conscious household, Joyce faced strong gender expectations: while her brothers were encouraged to pursue tertiary education, she and her sisters were expected to work in the family store. Despite parental opposition—particularly to her interest in dressmaking and cooking—Joyce persisted with her studies and secured a place at a Teachers’ College in Adelaide at just 17, supporting herself financially while bonded to the South Australian Education Department.

After teaching Home Science in Alice Springs (1961–62), Joyce married and was forced to resign under prevailing expectations that married women leave the workforce. She repaid the government bond in instalments while raising her children, then returned to teaching in Darwin in 1964, becoming the first Home Science teacher at Darwin High School. From the late 1960s onward, Joyce shifted into adult education, where she built a full-time role teaching fashion and dressmaking and became the Northern Territory’s first full-time female technical lecturer in 1970.

Over the following decades, Joyce played a transformative role in women’s education, introducing day classes, establishing the first child-minding centre to enable mothers to study, creating certificate and diploma-level dressmaking courses, and teaching sewing to female prisoners. She rose to senior leadership positions at the Darwin Community College, Darwin Institute of Technology and later the Northern Territory University, where she served as Associate Dean and secured national recognition for fashion qualifications.

Joyce retired in 2000 after more than 34 years in adult and tertiary education, recognised as the longest-serving staff member in Darwin’s tertiary sector. Her contributions were formally acknowledged in 2004 with a personal tribute on International Women’s Day for her impact on women’s education and the economic, social and cultural life of the Northern Territory.

Source: Sophie's Blog

Joyce with the School House Captain shield at Darwin High School

Image Courtesy of: Sophie's Blog