Letters from Daisy Bates 1941-1946
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The Barr Smith Library recognises the moral rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the owners of their knowledge. To this end, Special Collections is digitising the Daisy Bates Papers in our collections to enhance access for people who cannot travel to Adelaide. Please be aware that this site may contain sensitive information, including the names and images of people who have passed away and which may sadden and distress some Aboriginal people. This site may also contain language and terms used by an author that reflect an inappropriate attitude due to the historical context in which these records were created.
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Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 1/10/46(1946-10-01) Bates, DaisyDMB describes to Kilmeny how her natives, having "run" from Ooldea to Bookabie to see her, were overjoyed, even without the knowledge of the gifts of food she had brought them.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 22/12/44(1944-12-22) Bates, DaisyWriting at Christmas 1944, DMB describes the wild storms’ effects on her tent at Wynbring Siding. She is happy that she has a gathering of descendants of Kabbarli’s mob who she had tended in the past. Their memories of her care for their parents and relatives, having been passed down through several generations, are the only evidence left of her work in the Ooldea area.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 15/12/44(1944-12-15) Bates, DaisyDMB expresses her feelings of loneliness and being out of touch as she has only sporadic mail deliveries. She takes solace from her readings of the Dickens books that Kilmeny has sent her. She is working with 3 generations of people, descendants of her ‘mob’ from the west coast and Ooldea 1918-1935.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 13/9/44(1944-09-13) Bates, DaisyDMB is suffering drought conditions and loneliness. She has banned the people from coming to her camp because they have developed “animal vices” resulting in “caste produce” since she had been in Adelaide writing her book (1935-1941). She is waiting for the Government to recognise her service to the Australian natives since her time at the Beagle Bay Mission in 1899-1900.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 10/7/44(1944-07-10) Bates, DaisyDMB passes her time with books and poems committed to memory, talking to the birds, mending her tent and carrying firewood.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 23/4/44(1944-04-23) Bates, DaisyThe heat and flies in April are still causing DMB discomfort and her water supply had been cut off in August without warning. The butcherbird has eaten most of the wrens so she communes with the stars during the long periods of wakefulness at night. She refuses to communicate with the nearby fettlers because they are all “unionists”. She expresses her thanks always for newspapers, magazines and books sent to her by Kilmeny, and says that she passes them all onto the nearest troop settlements.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 10/3/44(1944-03-10) Bates, DaisyDMB is grateful to Kilmeny for sending her newspapers. She is doing a lot of tent-mending in the whirlwinds. Her only living companions are the blue wrens walking through the open tent.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 29/9/43(1943-09-29) Bates, DaisyAs she trills to the wrens and they trill back, DMB mourns the death of her friend Arthur Mee on 27 May 1943. She is concerned that the new editors of the Children’s Newspaper are publishing excerpts of her private correspondence with Arthur Mee.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 20/7/43(1943-07-20) Bates, DaisyDMB reminisces about how much she enjoyed the company of some Perth women in 1899 and how she was made a member of the Karrakatta Club as soon as she arrived. She is unhappy that she cannot get “just the employment I’m most fitted for” – that is, to write a guide about the Aborigines for government policy makers and missionaries. She writes that she has no conversation, not even with the 4 married women of the settlement but she sends 5 shillings for each of their new babies.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 5/6/43(1943-06-05) Bates, DaisyDMB complains about the state of her eyesight, which is becoming very poor. She is growing a little wheat as an experiment (“about 2 ½ yards”). She describes the “visitor who wasn’t”, the H.C. for Canada, who sent 3 cases of tinned food ahead but was then unable to visit at all.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 7/4/43(1943-04-07) Bates, DaisyDMB quotes poetry of the American Eugene Fields and wishes she could see Kilmeny Symon’s work in Adelaide. She hopes the great heat of summer is over and that the drought will break.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 20/3/43(1943-03-20) Bates, DaisyDMB feels lonely but enjoys the company of the wrens and finches. She longs for the company of Sir George Murray and Professor Stirling and envies their private libraries. She would have liked to build her own house with library in Perth but sold the plot to support her work.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 26/9/42(1942-09-26) Bates, DaisyDMB describes her pleasure at the parakylia flowers and the wrens. The Aborigines have been banned for 2 winters from contacting her because of the bad habits they have learned from the fettlers. She continues to chop and carry wood and refuses to use coupons.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 17/4/42(1942-04-17) Bates, DaisyDMB is full of praise for Arthur Mee’s writing which always reinforces the British attributes of ‘personal honour and ‘fine principle’. She thanks Kilmeny for the news from the outside world but complains that she has had no human company in the year since she arrived at Wynbring in March 1941.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 14/2/42(1942-02-14) Bates, DaisyDMB’s mind goes back to her youth in the previous century. She has injured her wrist, her eyes are diseased and she is unable to cook for herself. She sent all the blacks away because of ‘moral beastliness’ learned from ‘low whites’ and though she misses them, feels unable to change them now.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 23/10/41(1941-10-23) Bates, DaisyKabbarli’s mob are now being looked after by missionaries and the police nearby. DMB writes that she is very grateful for the magazines and Dickens books which Kilmeny has sent her and sends a cheque for £1.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 25/8/41(1941-06-25) Bates, DaisyDMB regrets the loss of old photos she took of natives in long dresses sent up by Lady Symon. She enjoys visits from some old natives now in the Wynbring area. She misses her correspondence (given to the National Library) and her diaries (destroyed) and complains about the slowness of communications. In the 10 hours of daylight she works and spends long quiet nights with her memories of the past.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 9/8/41(1941-08-09) Bates, DaisyDMB continues to do manual work with her injured hand. She thanks Kilmeny for sending her the Dickens books that she reads during her mealtimes.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 1/8/41(1941-08-01) Bates, DaisyDMB‘s hand/wrist is so injured that she pays a young fettler’s wife to cook and launder for her, but ensures that no-one ever comes to her camp. She writes that the natives have all gone to Fowler’s Bay and the west coast for initiations, which ceremonies are now “mainly orgies”. The young men are not disciplined and have become thieves preying on the fettlers.Item Restricted Letters from Daisy Bates 30/6/41(1941-06-30) Bates, DaisyDMB notes the receipt of more books from Kilmeny and says that she has injured her writing arm after “a slight accident”.