Pearl Gibbs

Pearl Gibbs (* 1901 , † 1983 in Dubbo ) was an Australian activist of the Aborigines and the most prominent activist in the movement of Aborigines in the early 20th century. She was a member of the Aboriginal Progressive Association (APA) and took part in various protests such as the Day of Mourning in 1938.

Gibbs was born in 1901 near Botany Bay , Sydney , but grew up near the city of Yass . She attended segregated schools in Yass and Cowra . She later married an English seaman with whom they had a daughter and two sons; they later separated and Gibbs took care of the children alone.

In 1930 Gibbs helped run a camp that supported unemployed working class Aboriginal people, and in 1933 she organized a strike by Aboriginal people who were pea pickers. She was one of the earliest members of the APA and drew large audiences when giving speeches in Sydney. She began working with APA President Jack Patten and Secretary William Ferguson : in 1938 she was involved in the organization of the Day of Mourning Protests, which at the time was the most important demonstration for Aboriginal rights in Australia. She became spokesperson for the Committee for Aboriginal Citizen Rights , the lobby group that carried on the work of the Day of Mourning Congresses. In 1938 she succeeded Ferguson as secretary of the APA, a position she held until 1940.

In 1941 Gibbs was the first female Aboriginal to broadcast a radio program. The transmitter was 2WL in Wollongong . Her post was about Aboriginal civil rights and was carefully written so that it would be allowed to be broadcast. Much of Gibbs' early work was done at a time when the Aboriginal movement was under oversight unless they had an exemption from the relevant Protection Board. In 1993 the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) published its files on Gibbs and gave them to the National Archives of Australia . The file contains a listing of the political meetings Gibbs attended and newspaper clippings of articles in which she was mentioned.

Gibbs lived most of her adult life in Dubbo. In 1946, she and Ferguson established a branch of the Australian Aboriginal League in Dubbo, where she was the branch's vice-president and later secretary in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1960 Gibbs established a hostel for the family members of patients of Aboriginal descent, the Dubbo Hospital. Gibbs was the only member of the New South Wales Aboriginal Welfare Board of Aboriginal descent from 1954 to 1957 , and she was the only woman ever to serve on that board. Together with Faith Bandler , she founded the Aboriginal Australian Fellowship (AAF) in 1956 , which was mainly an urban organization that supported cooperation between Aboriginal political groups and whites who sympathized with their affairs. Gibbs got the AAF to develop relationships with the trade unions in New South Wales.

Gibbs continued her political activity in the 1970s, where she helped establish the tent embassy . She initiated important links between the Aboriginal movement and other progressive political groups, especially the women's movement.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Item 1095936 . In: National Archives of Australia . Retrieved September 30, 2005.