[1] Abdullah was born in Guildford, a suburb of Perth, and was the youngest of the five children of Joseph Benedict Abdul, a labourer from Kolkata, and Mary Salina, an Indigenous woman.
[1] In 1944, Abdullah married Gladys Kelly in a Catholic ceremony at the mission in New Norcia.
While working with the railways as a labourer, truck driver, and linesman, he started promoting Aboriginal rights.
[1] He went on to become a freelance welfare worker for Aboriginal people, travelling across the country speaking about the plight of Indigenous Australians.
[3][4] He was involved in the formation of a number of Indigenous rights groups, including the Coolbaroo League, the Original Australians Welfare and Progress Association, and the Western Australia Native Welfare Council (later the Aboriginal Advancement Council of Western Australia).