Aboriginal rights activist Faith Bandler dies aged 96

A state funeral has been offered for Bandler, who was instrumental in campaigning to give Indigenous Australians rights under the constitution.

Indigenous activist Faith Bandler in 2009 when she was appointed a companion (AC) of the Order of Australia. Photograph: Jane Dempster/AAP

Aboriginal rights activist Faith Bandler has died. She was 96.

Bandler was instrumental in campaigning for the 1967 referendum to give Indigenous Australians rights under the constitution.

A state funeral has been offered to her family. “Our country has lost a champion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians,” said the prime minister, Tony Abbott, and the Indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion, in a statement on Saturday.

In 1956, Bandler helped establish the Aboriginal Australian Fellowship and was general secretary of the federal council for the advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Bandler received many awards for her work. She was named as a national living treasure and receiving the Order of Australia.

“Her legacy lives on in our journey toward the constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,” Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and opposition Indigenous Affairs spokesman Shanye Neumann said in a joint statement on Saturday.

.