Shakespeare to Winehouse open 9:00am–7:00pm on Thu, Fri, Sat from 7 July
Faith Bandler AC (1920–2015), civil rights activist and writer, was born in Tumbulgum, NSW, to a Scottish-Indian mother and a cane-worker father from what is now Vanuatu. Settling in Sydney after the war, she began to work full time on Indigenous issues, co-founding the Australian-Aboriginal Fellowship in 1956 and becoming a founding member of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in 1957. Within FCAATSI she directed the ten-year campaign towards the constitutional referendum of 1967. It is widely acknowledged that her charisma and public speaking skills were fundamental to the outcome of the referendum, in which more than 90 per cent of voters endorsed the removal of provisions from the Constitution that discriminated on the basis of race. After leaving FCAATSI, she was central to the foundation of the Australian South Sea Islanders United Council. Bandler wrote five books, including Wacvie (1977), a biographical novel about her father, who was taken from his home and enslaved on a sugar plantation in Queensland at the age of twelve.
Sculptor Julie Edgar deeply admires Bandler and wanted to portray her inner confidence in this work. Edgar's busts are created in many stages, involving building up a clay sculpture; forming wax and rubber moulds; bronze casting; and then grinding, rubbing back and detailing through patination.
Purchased 2007
© Julie Edgar
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
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