Faith Bandler was born in Tumbulgum, New South Wales on 27 September 1918. Named Ida Lessing Mussing, she was the second child in a family of eight. Her father, Peter Mussing, was a South Sea Islander who had been taken from Ambrym Island, Vanuatu, in 1883, at the age of twelve and sent to Mackay, Queensland, before being sent to work on a sugar cane plantation. Her mother, Ida Venno, was an Australian-born woman of Indian-Scottish descent.

Bandler was a leading campaigner for Aboriginal rights from the 1950s through to the 1980s, advocating and campaigning for a 'Yes' vote in the 1967 Referendum. She was also involved with the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI), formed in 1958, serving as an executive member and then secretary from 1970 until 1972.

In addition to campaigning for the rights of Indigenous Australians, Bandler campaigned for recognition for the descendants of her father’s people, Australia’s South Sea Islanders, brought to Queensland as indentured labourers, 1863-1904.

In 1977 she published her first novel, Wacvie, which she based on her childhood memories of her father’s stories. In 1984 she wrote her second novel, Welou: my brother, about her brother Walter's life growing up in Australia as a boy torn between two different cultures. She died in Sydney, New South Wales, on 13 February 2015.

A conference in Adelaide in 1958 resulted in the formation of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement. In 1964, the organisation was renamed to include Torres Strait Islanders in the title. Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) was formed to advance the rights of Aboriginal people. The Council included Aboriginal Advancement organisations, unions and church organisations. One of the Council's most successful campaigns was establishing the 1967 Referendum. In March 1978 FCAATSI changed its name to the National Aboriginal and Islander Liberation Movement (NAILM) but the organisation never met. It disbanded that same year after the federal government cut funding.