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y separately published work icon Daisy Bates : Grand Dame of the Desert single work   biography  
Issue Details: First known date: 2007... 2007 Daisy Bates : Grand Dame of the Desert
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Daisy Bates became an iconic figure during the years she spent on the border between Western Australia and South Australia. 'The Great White Queen of the Never-Never Lands' reigned supreme over the groups of Aboriginal people who, attracted by the Transcontinental Railway, arrived from the desert country to the north. Bates craved to be seen as a 'woman of science' through her earlier ethnographic work in Western Australia, but her exaggerated claims of wholesale cannibalism amongst the Aborigines, her belief in their inevitable extinction and her dismissive attitude to 'castes' discredited her within the academic community. Only in recent times has the use of her ethnographic data in Native Title claims begun to rehabilitate her scientific reputation. In Daisy Bates: A Life, Western Australian historian Bob Reece tells her extraordinary story through her letters and published writings so that readers can gain some idea of her motivation and beliefs, and picture what kind of person she really was.' (Publisher's blurb)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Who is Daisy Bates? Beverley Kingston , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: Jessie Street National Women's Library Newsletter , May vol. 24 no. 2 2013; (p. 6)

— Review of Daisy Bates, 'the Great White Queen of the Never Never' Elizabeth Salter , 1971 single work biography ; Daisy Bates : Grand Dame of the Desert Bob Reece , 2007 single work biography ; Kabbarli : A Personal Memoir of Daisy Bates Ernestine Hill , 1973 single work biography ; Desert Queen : The Many Lives and Loves of Daisy Bates Susanna De Vries , 2008 single work biography
Untitled Paul Monaghan , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Aboriginal History , vol. 34 no. 2010; (p. 239-241)

— Review of Daisy Bates : Grand Dame of the Desert Bob Reece , 2007 single work biography
Grand Dame of the Desert Sidney Ingham , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Tintean , December no. 6 2008; (p. 36)

— Review of Daisy Bates : Grand Dame of the Desert Bob Reece , 2007 single work biography
[Review Essay] Daisy Bates : Grand Dame of the Desert. Geoffrey Gray , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Aboriginal Studies , no. 2 2008; (p. 114-115)

— Review of Daisy Bates : Grand Dame of the Desert Bob Reece , 2007 single work biography

'In a paper published in Australian Aboriginal Studies, Bob Reece (2007:54) explains his purpose in writing about Daisy Bates:

'My purpose here is not to rehabilitate Bates as an ethnographer…As an historian, I see it as my ultimate task to make available from her extensive correspondence sufficient of her own writings for people to make up their minds about her motivation and beliefs, and about what kind of person she really was.

'He charts her early life in Ireland, arrival and work in Australia, her interest in Aboriginal peoples and her consequent development as a fieldworker (a self-taught anthropologist), and her final days working as a journalist in Adelaide. Reece makes the assertion that she was the first to undertake intensive participant/observer fieldwork, which became the template for modern anthropological fieldwork. (This is contested by the work of AC Haddon in the Torres Strait in 1898, and Baldwin Spencer in Central Australia in the 1890s). She is described as not engaging in theory, just stating the facts as she witnessed them — empiricism at its most pure. In response to a criticism by JB Cleland that she was misled by informants who provided the answers that they thought she wanted, Reece defends her: it ‘is hardly a convincing accusation against a highly experienced field worker who was perfectly aware of the hazard’ (p.88). Her unsubstantiated arguments about the existence of wholesale cannibalism among the desert people seems to seriously undermine his defence.'  (Introduction)

'Thinking Black' Nicholas Brown , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 300 2008; (p. 34-35)

— Review of Daisy Bates : Grand Dame of the Desert Bob Reece , 2007 single work biography ; Desert Queen : The Many Lives and Loves of Daisy Bates Susanna De Vries , 2008 single work biography
Off the Shelf : Biography Dianne Dempsey , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 15 December 2007; (p. 36)

— Review of Daisy Bates : Grand Dame of the Desert Bob Reece , 2007 single work biography
The Controversial Life and Times of Daisy Bates John Graham , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 5 January 2008; (p. 17)

— Review of Daisy Bates : Grand Dame of the Desert Bob Reece , 2007 single work biography
This Week's Selections David Bradbury , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 23 February 2008; (p. 12)

— Review of Daisy Bates : Grand Dame of the Desert Bob Reece , 2007 single work biography
Daisy, Queen of the Desert Angela Bennie , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 1-2 March 2008; (p. 28-29)

— Review of Desert Queen : The Many Lives and Loves of Daisy Bates Susanna De Vries , 2008 single work biography ; Daisy Bates : Grand Dame of the Desert Bob Reece , 2007 single work biography
Native Entitlement Philip Jones , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , March vol. 3 no. 2 2008; (p. 3, 10)

— Review of Desert Queen : The Many Lives and Loves of Daisy Bates Susanna De Vries , 2008 single work biography ; Daisy Bates : Grand Dame of the Desert Bob Reece , 2007 single work biography
Last amended 30 Mar 2015 10:53:28
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