Passionate about women’s rights and the cause of peace, Vroland was also a humanitarian with strong views on the treatment of Australia’s Aboriginal population; she became one of Victoria’s leading campaigners for Aboriginal rights.
Tūhourangi woman of mana, guide, ethnographer
A self-taught anthropologist, Daisy Bates conducted fieldwork amongst several Indigenous nations in western and southern Australia.
Phyllis Kaberry was the first Australian woman to be recognised as a fully trained and qualified anthropologist. She achieved several other ‘firsts’ along the way: she was the first female Australian anthropologist to complete doctoral work, which she did at the London School of Economics in 1938, and the first who took a particularly woman-focused approach to her field work and theories.
Marcia Langton is a leading academic and Indigenous spokesperson who has held the foundation chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne since February 2000.
McConnel came to anthropology through the study of psychology, which she began at the age of twenty-five. In 1918, she graduated from Queensland University with first class honours in philosophy and in 1923 began a doctorate in anthropology at University College, London, although health issues forced her to return to Australia and she did not complete the degree. Her interest in dreams led to an interest in mythology, particularly in primitive beliefs and then, in the late 1920s, to the study of the Wik-Mungkana people of the Cape York area. Under the supervision of first A. Radcliffe-Brown and then A.E. Elkin at the University of Sydney, she made several field trips to the area between 1927 and 1934, and published numerous articles in Oceania and a book, Myths of the Munkan.
Zora Hurston was a world-renowned writer and anthropologist. Hurston’s novels, short stories, and plays often depicted African American life in the South. Her work in anthropology examined black folklore. Hurston influenced many writers, forever cementing her place in history as one of the foremost female writers of the 20th century.