Self-taught ethnographer, journalist, author with a close relationship to Aboriginal people, Bates collected and published Indigenous languages, traditions, particularly myth, legend and custom. Something of a folkloric character herself, Bates was often controversial in life and after, though her ethnographic work is nowadays considered to have value.
A guide to her personal papers in the NLA at
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-229618391/findingaid
Her ADB entry at
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bates-daisy-may-83 also including many links and a select bibliography as well as a good deal of other material available through online searches.
The ‘Digital Daisy Bates’ project at https://bates.org.au
provides an insight into the extent of her work in relation to Aboriginal languages.
