My Natives and I
by Daisy Bates (edited by Peter J. Bridge with an introduction by Bob Reece of Murdoch University)
ISBN 085905 313 X, (2004 new), 292 pp illustrated, 216mm x 140 mm, section sewn, limp cover, 390grams
$35.00 + POST
"There is in the life of Daisy Bates something of the spirit of service that moved Florence Nightingale, and something of the spirit of sacrifice that filled the heart of Father Damien.
She would not put it so, for she has loved her life and made a joy of her labour but it is right that tribute should be paid. She went out to her Aborigines in the first years of this century. They had never known anyone like her. They named her Kabbarli, grandmother. They would come to her with the confidence of a child in its mother, yet like creatures from another world than ours. To us she is Daisy Bates, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the most remarkable woman in Australia. To them she is the magical Kabbarli whose word is love and law.”
From the Introduction by Arthur Mee to “The Passing of the Aborigines”
and the original dust jacket.
The Passing of the Aborigines was one of the most influential books about Australia ever to be published. Daisy Bates’ record of her lifetime among the Aborigines has been criticised, however anthropologists, historians, and all those interested in Aboriginal Australia have begun to realise that her knowledge cannot be lightly dismissed. In this edition the original 1936 newspaper series has been integrated with the1938 book, giving a wider view of Daisy Bates and her times. An extensive new introduction supplies background to Daisy, her associates and her writing.