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Faith Bandler Ac - Condolences COUNCIL 23 FEBRUARY 2015 ITEM 3.3. FAITH BANDLER AC - CONDOLENCES FILE NO: S051491 MINUTE BY THE LORD MAYOR To Council: On 27 May 1967, over 90 per cent of Australians voted to amend the Commonwealth Constitution to advance the position of Aboriginal Australians. That vote, the highest ever recorded at an Australian referendum, was the outcome of a campaign waged for more than 10 years. On 13 February 2015, Faith Bandler, one of the tireless leaders of that campaign, was lost to Australia. Faith Bandler was born on 13 February 1918 of a South Seas Islander father and a Scottish-Indian mother. Her father, Peter, had been kidnapped from his home on Ambrym Island, Vanuatu at around 13 years of age and transported to Queensland where he was forced to work on a sugar cane plantation. He later escaped to NSW where he met and married Faith’s mother. They established a small banana farm near Murwillumbah where Faith spent her early years. While Faith did not know her father well (he died when she was five years old), stories about his harsh experiences as a slave labourer strongly influenced her activism. Faith moved to Sydney in 1934, living in Kings Cross, later admitting she “always had a yen for bright lights” and “wanted to have a life of my own”. She completed a short apprenticeship in a shirt factory and worked for a time making clothes. When World War II started, she joined the Women’s Land Army, and worked on fruit farms. While working in the Riverina, she first “saw the appalling conditions that Aborigines lived in”. They were not allowed to work with the Land Army women, were paid paltry wages and made to work without a break. Faith later learned “they were shut away on a reserve outside of Griffith”, separated and segregated and “were never seen to be in the streets”. Returning to Sydney after the War, Faith pursued her passion for the cultural life, having grown up in a house filled with music. She took singing lessons for a time, joined the Margaret Walker dance group and stated attending concerts. It was at one such concert in 1951 that she met her future husband, Hans Bandler, a Jewish refugee who had spent time in the Dachau concentration camp. Their relationship was delayed, however. Hans was on his way to Tasmania, and Faith was about to travel to Europe for a cultural festival. The European trip had a profound impact on Faith. She saw the devastation caused by the war and its impact on Europe’s people. Although it was the Cold War, she and other members of her dance troupe travelled to Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia in Eastern Europe. Upon their return to Australia, their passports were confiscated. She later recalled “They stamped them and tossed then over their back into a box and we didn't see them again.” Soon after Faith returned home, she met Hans again and they were married in 1952. They had the same interests and shared the same politics. Faith became politically active, initially through the NSW Peace Council and speaking at meetings about the devastation she had seen in Europe. Two women mentors were instrumental in involving her in the Aboriginal movement: Pearl Gibbs, the most prominent Aboriginal woman activist at the time, and Jessie Street, the peace and human rights activist and feminist. FAITH BANDLER AC - CONDOLENCES 11502302 COUNCIL 23 FEBRUARY 2015 In 1956 Pearl Gibbs and Faith formed the Australian Aboriginal Fellowship, with Street as its patron, to facilitate cooperation between Aboriginal political groups and sympathetic white people. From its beginnings, Jessie Street was urging them to campaign to abolish state laws affecting Aboriginals through a constitutional referendum. As Faith later recalled: “… you had this tiny little group of people, who had nothing but dedication and a sense of justice - not a cracker, not a penny - challenged by this woman, Jessie Street, to change the Federal Constitution, if you please.” The group rose to the challenge. Street drafted a petition setting out the required constitutional change and presented it to Faith, telling her “Now, go get yourself a referendum.” The petition was launched at a packed public meeting at Sydney Town Hall on 29 April 1957. Because the group had no money, Faith and Hans provided the £20 deposit for the Hall hire, which was then covered by donations. The campaign was underway, dominating Faith’s life over the next decade, always under ASIO’s watchful eye. She later recalled: “I used to get very emotional about it because it possessed me. I became totally obsessed with that campaign. There were times when I would take as many as three meetings in a day. And I did things that I would never have dreamed of doing: like going into a pulpit, talking to church congregations, and putting up with people whose ideas were totally foreign to me. And all I wanted was their vote (chuckles). Of course it came about because, you could say the referendum was the result of good team work.” Key to the campaign was getting the petition presented to Parliament by a different MP every day. Even the then Prime Minister Robert Menzies presented it, not wanting to be the only MP not to do so, telling Faith: “Your petition's become like the prayer of the House now. It's first up every day.” Another early task was convincing other Aborigines of the importance of changing the constitution, when other issues appeared more urgent, such as health care, housing and education for Aboriginal people. Faith saw the referendum as a practical solution to these issues. Changing the constitution would enable the Commonwealth to make laws for Aboriginal people, thus overturning highly discriminatory state laws, and use its resources for the benefit of Aboriginal people. It would also enable Aboriginals to be counted in the Census, thus providing essential information to support this. Contrary to a popular misconception, the referendum was not about granting Aboriginals citizenship or the vote, a misconception that Faith herself frequently pointed out. All Australians, including Aboriginal Australians, gained Australian citizenship on 26 January 1949. Amendments to the Commonwealth Electoral Act in 1962 gave all Aboriginal Australians the right to enrol and vote. Faith’s activism continued after the success of the 1967 referendum. She was a founding member of the Women’s Electoral Lobby and the Australian Republican Movement and campaigned for the rights of South Sea Islanders. She also authored several books, including two histories of the 1967 referendum, an account of her brother's life in NSW, and a novel about her father's experience of blackbirding in Queensland. Faith declined the offer of an MBE (Member of the British Empire) in 1976 as a protest against the sacking of Gough Whitlam. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1984 and a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2009. FAITH BANDLER AC - CONDOLENCES 11502302 COUNCIL 23 FEBRUARY 2015 RECOMMENDATION It is resolved that: (A) Council observe a minute’s silence to mark the passing of Faith Bandler AC, noting her significant contribution to human rights and peace, and particularly the rights and advancement of the Aboriginal, Torres Strait and South Sea Islander people; and (B) the Lord Mayor write to Faith Bandler’s daughter Lilon and her family expressing Council’s condolences. COUNCILLOR CLOVER MOORE Lord Mayor FAITH BANDLER AC - CONDOLENCES 11502302 .
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