Amy Atkins was removed from her family in 1965 and sent to Palm Island for one year and then to St Gabriel's Anglican School at Charters Towers for four years. She excelled at school, became a prefect, and won a position with the Lands Department of Queensland as a Trainee Map Tracer. She has also worked for the Commonwealth Public Service and as a caseworker for Link Up. She had to apply for permission to marry in 1972.
Atkins' story was recorded by the National Library of Australia for the Bringing Them Home oral history project and appeared in the associated publication Many Voices: Reflections on experiences of Indigenous child separation edited by Doreen Mellor and Anna Haebich (2002).
