Pearl (Gambanyi) Gibbs (1901–82)

Leader and activist, Pearl Gibbs fought for the rights of Indigenous Australians for over 50 years.¹ Following her death the Indigenous artist and activist Kevin Gilbert² wrote of her: 

wherever there has been massacre, genocide, deprivation of human right – wherever tyranny ruled – the human spirit objected, often rising to heroic proportion. One such spirit was Pearl Gibbs … she held one course: justice, humanity, honour within this country.³

Born in Sydney, Gibbs grew up in Yass and Brewarrina where she and her sister attended segregated schools. In 1917 she moved to Sydney, working as a domestic servant and in 1923 married Robert Gibbs. After separating from her husband, Gibbs raised their three children as a single parent until they were removed and placed into care.⁴

Gibbs's activism began in the 1920s, advocating for Aboriginal domestic workers who had been removed from their homes by the Aborigines Protection Board. Losing her job during the Depression, she lived in the Happy Valley unemployment camp. As an agricultural worker in Nowra in the late 1930s, Gibbs helped organise protests for improved working conditions. 

In 1937 Gibbs joined William Ferguson and Jack Patten in the fledgling Aborigines Progressive Association, becoming its secretary. The following year she helped organise the historic Aboriginal Conference and Day of Mourning and Protest on Australia Day, the 'first national meeting of Aboriginal people for citizenship rights'. A compelling orator and persuasive author, in 1941 Gibbs became the first Indigenous Australian to speak on radio when her speech on Aboriginal dispossession and injustice was broadcast on radio 2GB. 

Gibbs was a member of the Union of Australian Women and the Committee for Aboriginal Citizenship. She also helped establish the Australian Aborigines' League in Dubbo and served on its executive throughout the 1940s and 1950s. In 1954 Gibbs was elected to the NSW Aborigines Welfare Board, its first female and only Aboriginal member. In 1956 she and Faith Bandler founded the Aboriginal Australian Fellowship, whose campaign for constitutional change partnered with activist Jessie Street⁵ and culminated in the 1967 referendum.⁶

Gibbs continued to be active in Indigenous organisations until her death in Dubbo, NSW.

Artist's note
Pearl Gibbs, outspoken and abrasive but also charming and persuasive,⁷ brought people together to achieve change, providing a link between black and white progressive organisations.

I imagined Gibbs campaigning in local halls, parliamentary offices, and in people's homes as she pulled her allies together to bring about positive change for her community. I printed her portrait to be reminiscent of a duotone magazine cover, a graphic style popular in the 1960s, and set her image over a piece of kitchen floor linoleum to indicate her ability to communicate with people from all sectors of society. I overlaid the background with a hand-typed Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement pamphlet which included information about the right to move, marry, raise children, vote, earn award wages, handle money, drink and own property.⁸ The organisations she was involved with are printed underneath her words, similar in style to a Contents list on a magazine cover.

References
1. Heather Goodall, 'Gibbs, Pearl Mary (Gambanyi) (1901–1983)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2007, accessed 27 June 2024; Rachel Standfield, Ray Peckham and John Nolan, 'Aunty Pearl Gibbs: Leading for Aboriginal rights', in Joy Damousi, Kim Rubenstein and Mary Tomsic, eds, Diversity in Leadership: Australian Women, past and present, ANU Press, Canberra, 2014, 53–68.
2. Alison Holland and Eleanor Williams-Gilbert, 'Gilbert, Kevin John (1933–1993)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2021, accessed 14 July 2024.
3. Kevin Gilbert, 'Pearl Gibbs: Aboriginal Patriot', Aboriginal History, vol. 7, part 1, 1983, 5–10.
4. BC Lewis, 'Activist grandmother Pearl Gibbs remembered in NAIDOC week', Blue Mountains Gazette, 9 July 2018.
5. Heather Radi, 'Street, Lady Jessie Mary (1889–1970)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2002, accessed 27 June 2024.
6. National Library of Australia, 'The 1967 Referendum: the campaign', accessed 27 June 2024.
7. Heather Goodall, 'Gibbs, Pearl Mary (Gambanyi) (1901–1983)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2007, accessed 17 December 2024.
8. S Andrews, The Australian Aborigines: a summary of their situation in all states in February, 1962, Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement, Adelaide, 1962.