Person - Olwyn Arkinstall

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OLWYN BERNICE ARKINSTALL (1920 - 2005)

Born on 26 September 1920, Olwyn Arkinstall joined NT ca 1937 with her younger sister Caroline Arkinstall and was in the revue I’d Rather be Left 1941. By January 1944 she was living at Kangaroo Point Brisbane and in that year, in national dress, sang a Russian song for International Women’s Day. She corrected a Courier Mail reader that colour was by skin pigmentation and it had nothing to do with blood. In 1945 Olwyn was Secretary of the Council for Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA).

In 1950 as Olwyn Arkinstall she sang Aboriginal and peace songs in a concert for the Australian Peace Council; on the same program Paul Mortier gave a talk on Aboriginal life and conditions. A CPA member until 1956, she was a Ryde alderman 1968-71, ran as an MLA Independent for Eastwood in 1971, and was a Bellingen Shire alderman 1985-91.

Tall, slim, dark-haired and mother of six, Olwyn Bernice Mackenzie AO died on 6 May 2005 at Coffs Harbour.



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