Feature Biography
Ida Lessing Faith Bandler (1918–2015)
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...