The Guardian 12 March, 2008
Celebrating International Women’s Day
To celebrate International Women’s Day in Perth the WA Branch of the Communist Party of Australia held a function in Willagee at which CPA member and long time political and community activist Vivienne Dayman and Aboriginal Elder Gladys Milroy of the Palku people of the Pilbara presented two stories of the role of women in society.
Vivienne spoke of the history of IWD, recalling that IWD was first celebrated in Australia in 1928 on March 25 and that in 1938 a rally was held for the first time in Perth calling for the defeat of fascism and rights for Aboriginal women who at the time were still seen as nothing more than indentured servants and still had their children taken away from them, a topic very close to the heart of Gladys Milroy.
Gladys Milroy started her talk by stating that she was happy that the Apology by Kevin Rudd had come, but that it was only the start of other actions which need to follow, such as compensation for the taking away of children from their mothers and putting them in missions and homes/orphanages like Sister Kate’s and Parkerville Children’s Home (PCH), the latter of which Gladys herself had been a resident.
Gladys had been forced to live at PCH through the policies of the government of the day as Gladys had a white father. Throughout her time there her mother would still come and visit her-though Gladys did not understand for some time why she could simply not live with her mother. Gladys was 19 when she was finally able to leave PCH.
In that time Gladys was to bear much witness to the harsh and cruel implementation of the government’s policies which sought a solution for what to do with the young children of the mothers from the Aboriginal lands that were being emptied out around the state to make way for white man’s pastoral and mining activities.
The babies and young children who were taken away and brought to PCH were so young they still needed to be breastfed but instead were given cow’s milk, Nestle (condensed milk) and powdered milk. Many didn’t live or grew up sickly and sad with care often provided by the other girls in the orphanage, some as young as eleven.