The Australian Women's Register

Pearl Gibbs grew up in the Yass and Brewarrina areas. After attending racially-segregated schools at Yass and Cowra, she worked as a maid and cook and married an English sailor named Gibbs. They later separated, leaving Pearl to raise their daughter and two sons. From the late 1920s Pearl started organising Aboriginal protests and from 1937 became a major figure in the Aboriginal political network. She was an early member of the Aborigines’ Progressive Association, appearing at meetings in Sydney’s Domain and drawing large crowds because a woman speaker was rare and because Pearl spoke with such fluency and passion. During the campaign for full citizen rights and an end to the Aborigines Protection Board, Pearl concentrated on women’s issues: ‘apprenticeships’ (’employment’ of Aboriginal girls as domestic servants by the Aborigines Protection Board), school and hospital segregation, health and the meagre Board rations on Aboriginal reserves. She successfully lobbied many women’s organisations, including the Sydney Feminist Club, and made wider alliances with centre and left political groups than other Aboriginal activist in New South Wales at the time.

Pearl Gibbs was secretary of the Aborigines’ Progressive Association from 1938 to 1940; vice-president and then secretary of the Dubbo branch of the Australian Aborigines’ League in the 1940/50s; the organising secretary for a new Council for Aboriginal Rights in 1953; the Aboriginal member of the Aboriginal Welfare Board from 1954 to 1957; and vice-president of the Australian Aboriginal Fellowship in the 1950s.