Faith Bandler
Faith Bandler AC MBE | |
|---|---|
Bandler meeting with Gordon Bryant (left) and Prime Minister Harold Holt in the lead-up to the 1967 referendum | |
| Born | Ida Lessing Faith Mussing 27 September 1918 Tumbulgum, New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 13 February 2015 (aged 96) |
| Spouse | Hans Bandler |
| Children | Lilon Gretl Bandler, Peter Bandler |
| Awards |
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Faith Bandler AC MBE (27 September 1918 – 13 February 2015; née Ida Lessing Faith Mussing) was an Australian civil rights activist of South Sea Islander and Scottish-Indian heritage. A campaigner for the rights of Indigenous Australians and South Sea Islanders, she was best known for her leadership in the campaign for the 1967 referendum on Aboriginal Australians.
She was made a member of the order of Australia in 1984, and a companion of the Order of Australia in 2009, after turning down an appointment to be a member of the Order of the British Empire in 1976.
She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Maquarie University in 1994, a Human Rights medal from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and was named one of the 100 inaugural Australian Living Treasures by the National Trust of Australia.
Following her death in 2015, the Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, offered her family a state funeral.