Mary Montgomerie Bennett

Mary Montgomerie Bennett (1881–1961) was an Australian activist and teacher. She is notable as a historical advocate for the rights of Aboriginal Australians, particularly in Western Australia, at a time when this was not a common feature of Australian public life.

Ms Bennett was a particularly strong critic of her historical contemporary A. O. Neville.

Biography Bennett's childhood was spent in both England and Australia, where her father Robert Christison had a station in north Queensland. By 1910, the family had sold up and relocated permanently to England. Bennett married Charles Douglas Bennett in 1914.

In 1927, she published Christison of Lammermoor, a biography of her father which was comparatively unusual at the time for its acknowledgement of settler violence towards Aborigines. Whilst in London she also published The Australian Aboriginal as a Human Being (1930). In 1930, after her husband had died, Bennett relocated to Perth, Western Australia to devote the rest of her life to Aboriginal welfare.

In 1932, Bennett settled at the Mount Margaret Mission near Laverton. Whilst working as a teacher of Aboriginal children, she was also actively involved in activist groups, including the Women's Service Guild.

Her work led to the formation of the Moseley Royal Commission in 1934. During her testimony before the Commission, Bennett condemned the alleged widespread sexual exploitation of Aboriginal women, as well as the forced removal of their children by the authorities.

In 1960, the year before her death, Bennett wrote to the Kalgoorlie Miner and asked its readers:

Bennett died in Kalgoorlie on 6 October 1961 and was buried with Churches of Christ rites in the Kalgoorlie cemetery. Her life's work was recognised when she was one of the inaugural inductees to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001.

Works