The Prossers
"They dream that the native race of Australia will one day have a heritage of freedom and independence as complete as that of the white man" - Sunday Times, 26 June 1938
Arthur Frederick Prosser and Gladys Gilligan were born in Western Australia. Arthur was born on 31 December 1915 in Busselton and Gladys in 1916 in the Kimberley (reference). Both faced discrimination due to their race throughout their lives. The discrimination against the Prossers came from the Australian Government's legislation against Aboriginal people. Arthur had one Aboriginal grandparent, and Gladys' mother was Aboriginal (reference).
As children, Arthur attended the Bunbury public school until eighth grade. Gladys was born in Halls Creek (reference). The Australian Government stole Gladys from her mother sometime between the ages of five and seven from her home at the government-managed Aboriginal cattle station called Moola Bulla (reference; reference; reference). They sent her to the Moore River Native Settlement, where she spent her childhood (reference; reference; reference). The Moore River Native Settlement features in the film Rabbit-Proof Fence. The dates of Gladys' time at the Moore River Native Settlement and her death vary between sources. Each stolen child was assigned a number; Gladys' was 489 (reference). Each Aboriginal person had a government file. In Gladys' file, Auber Octavius Neville, the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia wrote:
"Girls name is Gladys Gilligan and she is a pleasing and well mannered youngster and should well repay any effort on her education and training." - Chief Protector A O Neville
To the Chief Protector, these children were a commodity, used for child labour and trained to serve 'White Australia' (reference). In Gladys' case, she was very intelligent, so she was sent to Perth to finish her education at East Perth Girls' School (reference). However, she had no say in the matter as Neville was in charge of her. Neville sent her to the Native and Half-Caste Home (reference; reference; reference). The 'Home' was where he sent all his wards to live in Perth (reference). Eventually she ran away from the ‘Home’ but was arrested by the police and sent back to the Moore River Native Settlement (reference).
In 1930 Neville made Gladys write a letter on the Moore River Native Settlement. However, it is evident by its contents that she only wrote the positives of the Settlement, not the reality of life at the Mission, which she partially revealed eight years later to the Sunday Times.
"The settlement lies on the bank of Moore River. The hills surrounding it making it look quite a pleasant little home. Every morning the girls and boys get up at half-past six. When breakfast is over the children play until it's time to have their hair combed. Matron sees to that. At 8.30, the sewing bell rings and the girls go to the workroom. Then at 9 the school bells ring and the children come skipping along, chattering and laughing from all directions. Dinner is ready at 12. Grace is said and they sit down and have dinner. During the Summer seasons, the girls and boys often go swimming and fishing. At Saddle Hill, the beautiful Geraldton wax plant grows. It looks beautiful when in full bloom. Everybody here appreciates the goodness of the Government and Chief Protector in providing food and clothing." -Gladys Gilligan, aged 14.
At 15 years old, Gladys was teaching other stolen children at the Moore River Settlement (reference). When a journalist from the West Australian newspaper visited the Settlement, he reported that he saw Gladys teaching a class of thirty children to read (reference).
Arthur was an outstanding sportsman known in the South-West to win sporting competitions and as the Railways Football Club's 'champion goalkicker' (reference). Many newspaper articles mention Arthur's athletic prowess (reference; reference; reference; reference; reference). Praises include; how well he did at training (reference), his ability to mark, kick and play well (reference; reference), that he was 'the best example of a place man' (reference), and that he was a great new addition to the Brunswick team when he joined their side in 1946 (reference).
Arthur was also a jack of all trades, having worked in many occupations including shovelling, axwork, milking, stock driving, mustering, tallying and wheat harvesting by the time he was 22 (reference). In 1943 Arthur and Gladys lived on Blackwood Road in Bunbury, and he worked as a labourer (reference). He also had a few run-ins with the law, such as riding his bicycle on Bunbury Road without lights (reference). In 1939 he was taken to court over accusations of assault. Despite insisting on his innocence and providing an alibi that he was at the pictures, the court found him guilty (reference; reference). Other charges included getting into a few skirmishes (reference; reference).
On 3 December 1944, Arthur enlisted in the Australian Army at Tuart Hill (reference). His service number was WX41026 (W57139), and he was a Private (reference). Arthur trained at the Northam Camp in Western Australia and served in the 13 Australian Infantry Training Battalion and the 2nd AIF (reference; reference). He was discharged from service on 23 February 1944 (reference).
The couple were married in February 1938 in Gin Gin by Reverend Sprattling (reference; reference). At this time, Aboriginal people had to be granted permission to marry (reference). Gladys had requested permission from the Chief Protector to marry Arthur three times and had been rejected thrice (reference). As a result, the couple took the matter into their own hands and travelled to Gin Gin to seek a minister that would marry them (reference). They found Reverend Sprattling, who said, "if two people are in love and they want to get married, I will marry them (reference)." He did this in the face of the Australian law, which could see him sent to prison for bonding them in holy matrimony without Neville’s permission (reference).
Later that year, in June 1938, Arthur tried to get a job in Perth to support the two of them while Gladys received medical attention as she was having kidney troubles (reference). The couple had no choice but to leave their home in Bunbury, as there were no regional doctors that could help her. A few days after securing a job in Perth, Arthur was ordered by an officer of the Native Department to get a permit to stay in Perth, as by law, Aboriginal people could only enter the city with permission (reference). Arthur refused as it was 'an insult to his manhood and dignity' (reference). The couple continued their life in Perth only to be arrested, taken to the Police Station and ordered to 'immediately' leave Perth (reference). The consequences of staying would be a prison sentence, so the Prossers returned to Bunbury without Gladys receiving her much needed medical treatment (reference). However, before leaving Perth, Gladys and Arthur went to the Sunday Times to report how unjustly they had been treated and the awful conditions Aboriginal people suffered due to Australian law (reference). The article titled 'Shall Culture or Color Determine Natives' Freedom?' was published on Sunday 26 June 1938 and detailed their experience in Perth, the legislative restrictions against Aboriginal people and Gladys' childhood at the Moore River Native Settlement (reference).
The following interview on Gladys Prosser's experience at the Moore River Native Settlement was printed in the Sunday Times (reference):
“When I was at Moore River Settlement, there were 600 natives of all kinds, and the white staff of about a dozen. Two sheep per day were supposed to provide the meat-eating needs of those 600 people. The food was all thrown into the boiling pot together. There was no attempt at delicacy or niceness. No knives or forks were provided; merely spoons. If a girl had a piece of meat in her hotch-potch she had to pick it up with her fingers. To me, it was all very degrading, and I know it did not have an elevating effect upon the girls in general.”
“There are now eight two-roomed cottages in the settlement for married couples, but the married couples are only permitted to occupy these cottages on the condition that they forego their children.”
Interviewer: “How do you mean forego their children?”
“Just what I say. The mother is not permitted to retain her own children. They must remain and be brought up in the compound. Thus the mother is denied the evolution that follows with the rearing of her own children, that God Himself designed, and that man is permitted to frustrate.”
Interviewer: “Are the cottages occupied in those circumstances?”
“Not by parents who love their children sufficiently that they must have them with them. The majority of the couples lived in the promiscuous compound rather than part with their children.”
Interviewer: “Cannot the children go to school in the compound and live at home with their parents in the cottages?”
“They could, but men's minds decree otherwise. Men are so un-understanding. No woman, understanding mother-love and the part it plays in the mother's evolution, would dream of making such a decree.”
Interviewer: “Have the cottages got bathrooms?”
"No. The people are supposed to wash in the river.”
Interviewer: “Are the natives encouraged to go out and work for their living?”
“On the contrary, if they go out to work, and have comfortable homes offered to them, they must part with their children, who belong, in law, to the department.”
Interviewer: “Is that separation a matter of education, for the children's good?”
“No: in many parts of the south, native children, within reach of schools, are getting no education at all: they are not allowed to attend the schools. In many things the white people mean well, but they have so little understanding. My experience has convinced me that psychologically, the Native Department is working on wrong lines. Fundamentally, the colored people are not different from the white people, and are just as capable of being taught trades and farming as the whites. There should be no restriction of liberty of any kind upon natives who have passed an approved standard of education, and are entitled to vote, and in no circumstances should the separation of mothers and children be permitted except in circumstances where it is proved that the children are neglected. The same law that applies to the white race should apply to the native race in that particular.”
Interviewer: “You think that women should participate in the administration of the Native Act?”
“I think that is most essential, our native mothers have all the natural feelings of mothers the world over, and to many of them the administration of the Native Department, by men only is stark tragedy.”
Interviewer: “When did you last see your Mother?”
“Seventeen years ago.”
Interviewer: “She was colored?”
Yes, and (with a swift trembling lip and a rush of moisture to the eyes) she is such a dear soul.
This interview took place years after Gladys herself had her first born son, Grady, be taken away from her (reference).
Gladys also said during the interview:
“Please God, you will help open the hearts and understanding of your people. In my prayers I never forget to ask God to open the hearts and understanding of the white people.”
Gladys sadly passed away on 23 May 1944 at Tuart Hill at just 28 years old (reference). She left behind two children - Grady and Phillip, her sister Rose and her loving husband Arthur (reference). Having died in 1944, she never lived to see the many changes to Australian law and society that slowly gave Aboriginal people the rights and freedoms they deserved. At the time of her passing, she was not even considered a citizen of Australia, something that her husband Arthur sought and was granted in 1949 (reference; reference; reference).
Arthur passed away on 2 June 1988 at 72 years old (reference; reference). He is buried at the Midland Cemetery in the Roman Catholic section (reference). Unlike his wife, Arthur lived long enough to get the vote when Australian laws were overturned, the 1967 Referendum's results and the end to the Australian Government stealing Aboriginal children (reference). However, he never saw the Government take ownership of the trauma and heartache caused by taking children away from their families, including his beloved wife, Gladys.
Much research has been conducted on the Moore River Native Settlement. Some resources for further reading and viewing on this subject and on Gladys include:
Sort of a place like home: Remembering the Moore River Native Settlement by Susan Maushart, 2003.
SBS episode 5 of 7: First Australians: Unhealthy Government Experiment - Western Australia (1897-1937) 26 April 2015. Some information from this episode was used in the writing of this article (see in-text references).
Writing in Order from Writing Australian Unsettlement. Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics by M Farrell, 2015.
When they write what we read: Unsettling Indigenous Australian life-writing by Michele Grossman, 2006.
First Australians: The untold story of Australia. A study guide by Libby Tudball Episode 5.