'Olive Pink (1884-1975) was an unconventional anthropologist, an advocate of Aboriginal rights and an early proponent of the cultivation of Australian indigenous plants. In this award winning biography , Julie Marcus traces Olive Pink's life and untangles how she is remembered and mythologised by Australia's Aboriginal and white communities.' (Publication summary)
'The Indomitable Miss Pink is a sympathetic portrait of Olive Muriel Pink—watercolourist, botanist, anthropologist, activist and advocate, scourge, indefatigable letter writer, loyal friend, radical and conservative, pursuer of truth and justice, and eccentric. She was a woman of fierce principle and determination, if not outright stubbornness, in her advocacy of what she perceived were Aboriginal interests. Her unwillingness to play the political game and her forthrightness did not, however, make her an effective lobbyist for the causes she held dear. Pink’s life falls into three main phases: the first was her youth in Tasmania, her training as an artist at the Julian Ashton School of Art, and her working life in Sydney as a draftswoman; the second phase began with her study of anthropology; and the third, with her return to Alice Springs in 1944, lasted until her death. But, above all, Pink was indomitable! The book is therefore more than ‘a life in anthropology’, although it was anthropology that changed Pink’s life (p. 53).' (Introduction)
'The Indomitable Miss Pink is a sympathetic portrait of Olive Muriel Pink—watercolourist, botanist, anthropologist, activist and advocate, scourge, indefatigable letter writer, loyal friend, radical and conservative, pursuer of truth and justice, and eccentric. She was a woman of fierce principle and determination, if not outright stubbornness, in her advocacy of what she perceived were Aboriginal interests. Her unwillingness to play the political game and her forthrightness did not, however, make her an effective lobbyist for the causes she held dear. Pink’s life falls into three main phases: the first was her youth in Tasmania, her training as an artist at the Julian Ashton School of Art, and her working life in Sydney as a draftswoman; the second phase began with her study of anthropology; and the third, with her return to Alice Springs in 1944, lasted until her death. But, above all, Pink was indomitable! The book is therefore more than ‘a life in anthropology’, although it was anthropology that changed Pink’s life (p. 53).' (Introduction)
