The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Valentine Leeper was the secretary and a long-time member of the Victorian Aboriginal Group, formed in 1933 to promote the welfare of Aboriginal people and influence public opinion in their favour. Its most active members were women including Leeper and Amy Brown. Leeper was close to the activist Mary Montgomerie Bennett, who taught at the school on the Mount Margaret Mission in Western Australia from 1932 until 1941. Bennett sent copies of the schoolwork of students at Mt Margaret Mission to Leeper, and the Victorian Aboriginal Group displayed the work in Melbourne to help the Group raise funds to improve Aboriginal education. The records of the Mt Margaret students are preserved within the Leeper Family Papers collection at the University of Melbourne Archives and are highly significant records of the lives of Aboriginal children and communities on missions.