Pacific Islander Biography

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Ida Lessing Faith Bandler (1918–2015)

Ida Lessing Faith Bandler

Australian political activist and writer, was born in Tumbulgum in New South Wales, and named Ida Lessing Mussing, the second child in a family of eight. Her father, Wacvie Peter Mussing from Biap village, Ambrym, in Vanuatu, had been taken to Australia in 1883 when he was 12. Her mother was Scottish-Indian, born in Brisbane. Educated at Murwillumbah and Cleveland Street Night School in Sydney, Faith married Hans Bandler in 1952, and became involved in indigenous politics as co-founder of the Aboriginal-Australian...

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