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Daisy BatesPrint Page Print this page

24-January-2021
24-January-2021

Photographs supplied by Stephen Warren

The headstone, erected by the Commonwealth Government over the grave, commemorates anthropologist and welfare worker Daisy Bates (1863 - 1951), for her life long work with Aboriginals.  The North Road Cemetery refurbished the grave in 2020. 

In 1912 Daisy Bates established the first of the harsh, isolated camps for which she became renowned. She camped at Eucla amongst the remnants of the Mirning tribe on the southern fringe of the Nullarbor Plain. She was invited to attend meetings in eastern capitals in 1914 of the anthropological section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

She wrote some 270 newspaper articles about Aboriginal life, valuably sensitive accounts of cultures customarily presented in the press as unintelligibly bizarre. However, her repeated, emphatic assertions concerning Aboriginal cannibalism aroused much controversy. She strongly opposed miscegenation; her belief that Aboriginal full-bloods would become extinct unless segregated from Europeans was proved wrong by the population statistics of the years following the Passing. Nevertheless her widely read defeatist views helped prod governments into action in medicine and child care.

Through her work for aborigines the late Mrs.Daisy Bates had be one of the outstanding personalities of her time and a legend among the native tribes, said the Minister for Defence (Mr. McBride) yesterday, when he unveiled a headstone at her grave in North Road Cemetery. Members of the Federal and State Parliaments, civic leaders and representatives of the Daisy Bates Memorial Committee and Pioneers' and Australian Natives' Associations were among more than 100 people who attended. The tablet, which bears the natives' name for Mrs. Bates. 'Kabbarli,' is inscribed, ''To the memory of Daisy M. Bates, CBE. Died 19th April, 1951, aged 91 years. Erected by the Commonwealth Government as a tribute to her lifelong work in the interests of the Australian aboriginals."
The Advertiser (Adelaide), 28 July 1952.

 

Location

Address:Cemetery Avenue, North Road Cemetery, Nailsworth, 5082
State:SA
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -34.890098
Long: 138.607179
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Grave
Monument Theme:People
Sub-Theme:Science
Link:http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/adbonli…

Dedication

Front Inscription

Kabbarli 

To the memory of Daisy M. Bates C B E

Died 19th April 1951  Aged 91 years

Erected by the Commonwealth Government as a tribute to her life - long work in the interests of the Australian Aboriginals

Source: MA,ADB
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au