• Entry type: Person
  • Entry ID: AWE0808

Bennett, Mary Montgomerie (Montgomery)

  • Maiden name Christison, Mary
(1881 – 1961)
  • Born 18 July 1881, London, , United Kingdom
  • Died 6 October 1961, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, Australia
  • Occupation Aboriginal rights activist, Teacher, Writer

Summary

Mary Montgomerie Bennett spent her childhood in Queensland, returning to London from 1903 to 1908 to study, and again in 1914 to marry. When her husband died in 1927 she returned to Western Australia to pursue her interest in Aboriginal education. She worked at the Mount Margaret Mission from 1932, dramatically improving educational outcomes through the implementation of progressive teaching methods. Over the next three decades Bennett was a passionate advocate for Aboriginal rights employing her connections with international humanitarian groups and women’s organisations to support her campaigns to improve the lives of Aborigines, in particular Aboriginal women.

Events

  • 2001

    Inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women

Archival resources

  • National Library of Australia, Oral History and Folklore Collection
    • Shirley Andrews interviewed by Peter Read in the Peter Read collection of interviews conducted for his book entitled, Charles Perkins : a biography [sound recording]
  • State Library of Western Australia
    • Papers, [19--?]-1999 [manuscript]
    • Records of Mt. Margaret Aboriginal Mission, 1921-1969 [manuscript]
  • Fryer Library, The University of Queensland
    • Mary Montgomerie Bennett Papers
  • State Records Office of Western Australia
    • Allegations by Mrs M. Bennett in regard to native slavery - inadequate reserves - and traffic in native women.
  • James Cook University of North Queensland, Library Archives
    • Jean Devanny Archive
  • The University of Melbourne Archives
    • Leeper Family Papers

Published resources

  • Resource Section
  • Book
    • Teaching the aborigines : data from Mount Margaret Mission, W.A, Bennett, M. M. (Mary Montgomerie) (notes by), [1935]
    • The Australian Aboriginal as a human being, Bennett, M. M. (Mary Montgomerie), 1930
    • Human rights for Australian Aborigines : how can they learn without a teacher?, Bennett, M. M. (Mary Montgomerie), [1957?]
    • Hunt and die : the prospect for the Aborigines of Australia, Bennett, M. M. (Mary Montgomerie), 1950
    • Broken circles : fragmenting indigenous families 1800-2000, Haebich, Anna., 2000
    • A drop in a bucket : the Mount Margaret story, Morgan, M. R. (Margaret R.), 1986
    • Jean Devanny: Romantic Revolutionary, Ferrier, Carole, 1999
  • Conference Paper
    • The Aboriginal mother in Western Australia in 1933, Bennett, M. M. (Mary Montgomerie), [1933?]
  • Book Section
    • Mary Montgomerie Bennett, Radi, Heather, [1988]
  • Edited Book
    • Women in Australia : an annotated guide to records, Daniels, Kay, Murnane, Mary, Picot, Anne and National Research Program (Australia), 1977
    • 200 Australian Women: A Redress Anthology, Radi, Heather, 1988
  • Thesis
    • Ideas have wings : white women challenge Aboriginal policy, 1920-1937, Paisley, Fiona, 1995
  • Resource
  • Site Exhibition

Related entries


  • Membership
    • Women's Service Guilds of Western Australia (1909 - 1997)
  • Related Organisations
    • The National Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Australia (1891 - )
    • The United Associations of Women (1929 - )
  • Friend and Colleague
    • Devanny, Jean (1894 - 1962)
  • Related Women
    • Leeper, Valentine Alexa (1900 - 2001)

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