The indomitable Kabbarli

1863 Daisy Bates (Daisy May O'Dwyer; Kabbarli; d. April 18, 1951), Irish-born Australian woman who lived for more than three decades among desert Aboriginal people in tents in small settlements from Western Australia to the edges of the Nullarbor Plain, notably at Ooldea in South Australia. She was the author of The Passing of the Aborigines (1938) and wrote millions of words on Australia's indigenous people.

On March 13, 1884 she married legendary Australian horsebreaker and Bulletin poet, Breaker Morant, but kicked him out after he was caught stealing pigs. Or, so it is said. She married again, this time to John Bates, a breaker of wild horses, a bushman and drover, on February 17, 1885. The bigamous nature of their marriage (as she was still married to Morant) was kept secret during Bates's lifetime. In 1933 she was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by King George V ...

Tagged: australia, biography, indigenous