1863-1951

Irish anthropologist who studied Aborigines. Bates married an Australian cattleman in 1885. Discontented, she moved to Great Britain, where she read allegations that white Australians abused indigenous peoples. Bates returned to Australia in 1899 to investigate. She lived with Aborigines, recording information about their culture. Concerned about their health, she nursed the ill and strove to improve living conditions. The aborigines called Bates Kabbarali, meaning "white grandmother." She wrote The Passing of the Aborigines (1938), increasing anthropologists' awareness of those tribes.