BATES, DAISY MAY (1863-1951), welfare worker among Aboriginals and
anthropologist, was born on 16 October 1863 in Tipperary, Ireland, daughter of
James Edward O'Dwyer, gentleman, and his wife Marguarette, née Hunt. Her mother
died in Daisy's infancy and she had an unstable childhood. On the death of her
maternal grandmother she was put, aged about 8, in the care of Sir Francis
Outram's family in London.
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Australian Dictionary of Biography
A self-taught anthropologist, Daisy Bates conducted fieldwork amongst several Indigenous nations in western and southern Australia. She supported herself largely by writing articles for urban newspapers on such topics as 'native cannibalism' and the 'doomed' fate of Indigenous peoples. Bates also published her work on Indigenous kinship systems, marriage laws, language and religion in books and articles. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for Aboriginal welfare work in 1934.
Daisy May Bates first arrived in Australia in 1884 and worked as a governess in Berry, New South Wales from 1884-1885. She worked on the Review of Reviews in London, 1894-1899, gaining expertise in journalism.
From 1899-1900 she was at the Trappist mission, Beagle Bay, north of Broome and in 1904 was appointed by the Western Australian government to research the tribes of the State. Bates was a member of an expedition led by A.R. Radcliffe-Brown to study the social anthropology of Aboriginal people of north-west Australia in 1910.
Over more than twenty years Bates camped at several locations in South Australia and Western Australia; Eucla, 1912-1914; near Yalata, 1915-1918; and near Ooldea, 1918-1934; She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for Aboriginal welfare work on January 1, 1934. She was a member of the British Royal Anthropological Institute and the Australasian Anthropological Institute.
Bates wrote her autobiography 'My natives and I' in a tent at Pyap, South Australia, 1935-1940. This was serialised in The Adelaide Advertiser and later edited and published as The Passing of the Aborigines in 1938. Her articles appeared in several newspapers, including The Catholic Record, The Western Mail, The Adelaide Advertiser, and The Children's Newspaper.
She lived in Wynbring, east of Ooldea, South Australia from 1941 until old age and failing health led her to return to Adelaide in 1945, where she remained until her death in 1951.
Bates is remembered in an ambivalent light by Indigenous and non-Indigenous folk-lore, and has been represented in children's literature, theatre, film and opera. According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Bates was given the affectionate name 'Kabbarli', meaning 'grandmotherly person'; the Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia records that Anangu people living at Yalata have referred to Bates as 'Daiji Bate mamu' ('mamu' meaning ghost or devil) and as 'that poor old lady at Ooldea.'
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Australian Women's Register
Daisy May Bates worked for many years as a welfare worker amongst the Aboriginal tribes of Western Australia and through this she built up an extensive anthropological knowledge of Aboriginal cultures which she recorded in numerous articles and her autobiography. The Aboriginals gave her the affectionate name of "Kabbarli", meaning grandmotherly person. Her place in Australian folk-lore has been formalised by the opera, "The young Kabbarlie", witten by Lady Casey to music by Margaret Sutherland.
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1884
Life event - Arrived in Australia
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1884 - 1885
Career position - Governess at Berry, New South Wales
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1894 - 1899
Career position - Study of journalism on the Review of Reviews, London
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1899 - 1900
Career position - Trappist mission to Beagle Bay in the north of Broome
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1904
Career position - Appointed by the Western Australian Government to research the tribes of the State
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1910
Career position - Member of an expedition led by A.R. Radcliffe-Brown (q.v.) to study the social anthropology of Aboriginals of the north-west
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1912 - 1914
Career position - Camped at Eucla
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1915 - 1918
Career position - Camped at Eucla
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1918 - 1934
Career position - Aboriginal welfare work at Ooldea
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1934
Award - Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
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1935 - 1940
Career position - Wrote her autobiography My natives and I, in a tent at Pyap
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1941 - 1945
Career position - Lived in Wynbring, east of Ooldea
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1945 - 1951
Career position - Lived in Adelaide
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Encyclopedia of Australian Science
Mrs. Daisy Bates, C.B.E. — "Kabbarli" (grandmother) to aborigines throughout Western Australia, South Australia, Central Australia, and the Northern Territory — died in her sleep in an Adelaide...
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Obituaries Australia
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