Mrs Marjorie Alice Angas commenced employment with the South Australian Aborigines Department in 1957 as a welfare officer. She was involved in a number of special projects relating to Aboriginal people at Point McLeay and Point Pearce, including a project to identify and assist Aboriginal people affected by Huntington's Disease, a genetic disorder which entered the Aboriginal community after a white man suffering from the disease married an Aboriginal woman in the late 19th century.

When legislation affecting Aboriginal people was amended in 1962, Mrs Angas took possession of some Departmental records and historical material (including some originally compiled by the Aborigines' Friends' Association) that were to be destroyed, including letterbooks, financial returns and other documents relating to Point McLeay in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Through her own family connections she was also able to acquire some historical documents and photographs compiled by Reverend George Taplin, the first missionary at Point McLeay, and other photographs compiled by the Aborigines' Friends' Association. During the course of her departmental career Mrs Angas also obtained a collection of historical and contemporary photographs of Aboriginal people, mainly from Point McLeay.

Mrs Angas donated historical material and photographs to the South Australian Museum on a number of occasions during the 1970s and 1980s, and additional material was received after her death in December 1997.

Some material acquired by Angas in the course of her employment in the Aborigines Department/Department of Aboriginal Affairs was returned to SA State Records in ****. Additional Departmental material was returned to State Records in 2004. Correspondence relating to the return of this material is filed in Box 1.

Mrs Angas also donated a substantial quantity of documentary material to the Native Title Unit, Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement (South Australia), shortly before her death.