Mussingkon's abduction was part of blackbirding, the practice which brought cheap labour to help establish the Australian sugar industry.

[2] During World War II, Bandler and her sister Kath served in the Australian Women's Land Army, working on fruit farms.

After the war, Bandler moved to the Sydney suburb of Kings Cross, New South Wales where she also worked as an abuse activist.

[3] In 1956, Bandler became a full-time activist, co-founding and becoming active in the Sydney-based Indigenous rights organisation Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship along with Pearl Gibbs, Bert Groves,[4] and Grace Bardsley.

The campaign, which included several massive petitions and hundreds of public meetings arranged by Bandler, resulted in the 1967 referendum being put to the people by the Holt government.

[9] In 1974, Bandler started working on four books, two histories of the 1967 referendum, an account of her brother's life in New South Wales, and a novel about her father's experience of blackbirding in Queensland.

The couple had a daughter, Lilon Gretl, born in 1954, and a fostered Aboriginal Australian son, Peter (Manual Armstrong).