Margaret Reynolds was a junior minister in the Hawke government. She began her career in special education, developing a passion for advocacy of the marginalised. Providing effective early childhood education for Aboriginal children in race-bound Townsville in the 1960s took not only idealism but ingenuity and guts. Juggling the needs of a young family with work and political activism, she joined grass-roots organisations such as the anti-war group Save Our Sons, One People of Australia (committed to Aboriginal welfare) and Women’s Electoral Lobby.