Daisy May Bates, CBE[1] (born Margaret May O'Dwyer; 16 October 1859 – 18 April 1951) was an Irish-Australian journalist, welfare worker and self-taught anthropologist who conducted fieldwork amongst several Indigenous nations in western and southern Australia.

Her work is considered to be an unrivaled source of ethnographic data on the Aboriginal cultures of Western Australia, while her reliability has also been questioned due to false claims she made about her personal history.

[15][16] It is known that Bates was in Charters Towers for some period of time before November 1883, as a coroner's inquest report into the death/suicide of a man named "Arnold Knight Colquhoun" includes a suicide note that was intended for her.

Before leaving she enrolled her son in a Catholic boarding school in Campbelltown, NSW and planned for him to stay with his paternal grandmother during the summer holidays at Pyree.

[32][33] On her return voyage she met Father Dean Martelli, a Roman Catholic priest who had worked with Aboriginal people and who gave her an insight into the dire conditions they faced.

It was suggested that she join an expedition to a Catholic Mission at Beagle Bay, near Broome, where a dictionary of Nyulnyul, the local language, was being compiled.

After arranging the building of a cattle run and homestead, they began the return journey home; first to Port Hedland and then Carnarvon by buggy, and then to Perth via steamer.

[40][41][42][43] In August (no more than a month after arriving back in Perth), Bates joined Bishop Matthew Gibney and Father Martelli to the mission at Beagle Bay.

While in Beagle Bay, Bates assisted in nursing unwell Aboriginal women,[d] repairing buildings, fences and wells, and in yarding cattle.

She started by compiling a questionnaire which was "sent to white males who exercised some measure of control over Aboriginal people" and by reading ethnographic material held by libraries across the state.

[57][58][59] On May 24, Bates responded to a letter in The Times that had argued Western Australia to be a slave state due to many Aboriginal workers being indentured on pastoral stations.

Bates claimed that Western Australia was doing more for Aboriginal people than any other state, denied that the indenture system was cruel, and wrote that most station owners were humane and "will not wantonly ill-treat their natives.

[89] Bates then submitted her manuscript to the State Government for publication but the recently elected Premier John Scaddan returned it to her (also in 1912) to publish at her own expense.

From Eucla they travelled 190km east, aboard a camel buggy, to Nullabor Plains Station which covered 1,000 sq mi (2,600 km2) and which Mr Raine managed.

[103][104] She hired a camel buggy[q] and in May travelled to Yalata Station with a married couple, Balgundra and Gauera; the former being a Mirning man, the latter being a Wirangu woman and both of whom she had developed a friendship with.

In September she wrote to the Chief Protector William South, asking for assistance due to her poor health and dire financial circumstances.

The Women's Non-Party Political Association supported her; they advocated for her appointment as a Justice of the Peace, be employed as a Protector, and that she be given a rail pass to freely patrol the line.

[127][128] At Ooldea, Bates provided rudimentary medical aid to sick or injured Aboriginal people; she prepared food and applied salves and bandages.

While there, she:[133][134][135] In March 1920, Bates wrote to Chief Protector William South with concerns that the local police constable was not properly distributing rations.

[136] In July, Edward VIII, then the Prince of Wales, visited Cook Siding, four train stops west of Ooldea, to watch a series of dances by various Aboriginal peoples, as well as displays of boomerang and spear throwing.

[161][162] An advance of £500, accommodation at the South Australian Hotel and a shared office with Hill at The Advertiser were arranged for Bates to produce a series of autobiographical articles.

Due to her near blindness, failing short term memory, and growing difficulty in telling a cohesive story, Bates dictated while Hill transcribed.

[163][164] In April 1936, the federal government hired Edith Watts, a typist, to prepare Bates's large collection of notes for donation to the National Library of Australia.

[171] In April 1941, Bates returned to her tent life at Wynbring Siding (a station 170 kilometres (110 mi) east of Ooldea), wishing to continue her work with Aboriginal people.

Hill did not but in 1972 it was published by novelist Ker Wilson and illustrated by Harold Thomas, it was titled Tales told to Kabbarli: Aboriginal legends collected by Daisy Bates.

[184] Medical practitioner and geologist, Herbert Basedow – who had led an expedition through the north-west of South Australia and inspected the health of Aboriginal people at Ooldea in 1920 – was critical of Bates's claims of cannibalism and thought that she was "wildly exaggerating".

Anthropologists, Ronald and Catherine Berndt, who conducted fieldwork at Ooldea in 1941, wrote in 1977 that Bates's "notes are the only ones available for some groups of Aboriginals" but that her work never became "seriously anthropological" and left much to be desired.

She explained that Bates's success was due to her living with the people she studied and by "sitting on the ground and sharing her food with them, observing their behaviour and listening".

White noted that her personal attitudes "coloured" her interpretations; she described Bates's contradictory views on the role of women in Aboriginal societies as evidence.

[198] Bates was known for her strict lifelong adherence to Edwardian fashion, which included wearing a coat, corset, ankle length skirt, boots, gloves and a veil.