Gibbs, Pearl (1901–1983)

Aboriginal activist . Name variations: known as Gambanyi (in Ngiyamba). Born in Australia in 1901; died in 1983; daughter of Maggie Brown and stepdaughter of Dick Murray; attended school at Yass and Cowra; married a man named Gibbs (an English sailor), in the 1920s (separated); children: one daughter and two sons.

Pearl Gibbs was born in Australia in 1901 and spent her childhood near Yass and later in the Brewarrina area. During the 1920s, while working as a maid and cook, she became a political activist, assisting Aboriginal "apprentices" (girls indentured by the Aborigines Protection Board as domestics). Her marriage to an English sailor ended in separation, leaving her to raise their daughter and two sons. During the 1930s, Gibbs organized strikes among the Aboriginal pea pickers and initiated protests against Board controls. From 1937, she gained status as a member of the Aborigines' Progressive Association, which campaigned for full citizen rights and an end to the Aborigines Protection Board. Known as an articulate and passionate speaker, she focused her attention on issues of concern to women: "apprenticeships," school segregation, health, hospital segregation, and Board rationing.

Serving as secretary of the all-Aboriginal Aborigines' Progressive Association from 1938 to 1940, she helped unite regionally based factions and spoke frequently for the Committee for Aboriginal Citizen Rights, a predominantly white organization formed in 1938 to mobilize public opinion. Participating in radio broadcasts and writing newspaper articles, she supported Northern Territory Aborigines in their conflicts with the frontier "justice" system and lobbied for Aboriginal representation on the New South Wales Welfare Board.

In 1946, with Bill Ferguson, Gibbs helped establish the first formal link between Aborigines in two states, by setting up the Dubbo branch of the Australian Aborigines' League (founded by William Cooper in 1933). In 1953, after serving as vice-president and then secretary of the branch, she became organizing secretary for a new Melbourne-based Council for Aboriginal Rights. From 1954 to 1957, she served as the elected Aboriginal member of the Welfare Board, although as the only woman member, she was often excluded from the real decision-making processes of the male bureaucrats and academics who comprised the rest of the Board.

In 1956, with Faith Bandler , Gibbs established the Australian Aboriginal Fellowship, which included both Aboriginal and white members, and for which she served as vice president. Utilizing her organizational skills and her numerous contacts, Gibbs attracted a high turn out of Aborigines for the public rally in Sydney in 1957. The rally kicked off the campaign to remove discriminatory clauses in the federal constitution, a goal that was finally realized in 1967. Gibbs continued her political activities, establishing the first hostel for Aboriginal hospital patients and their families in Dubbo in 1960, and organizing a Fellowship conference in 1965. She attended most major Aboriginal conferences in New South Wales until ill health curtailed her traveling. Pearl Gibbs died in 1983 after years of commitment to Aboriginal rights, which she viewed as part of the larger struggle for human rights and international peace.

sources:

Radi, Heather, ed. 200 Australian Women. NSW, Australia: Women's Redress Press, 1988.