The Ladies On The Bus

Mary
Lioupas 19352428

The Ladies on the Bus: experiences and roles of the

female Freedom Riders

Ann Curthoys and Louise Higham interview May Copeland and Tottie Barlow at Moree
Aboriginal Station, Feburary 19651

On a hot February afternoon, a metal
bus set of on a mission and carried 34 Getting on the road
activists along the dusty country roads In 1965, indigenous Australians were
of regional New South Wales. The 34 not included in the census and treated
were packed in tight and ready to as second-class citizens. Since the
change Australia. arrival of the colonizers in the 18th
century, Indigenous people had faced
It was 1965 and those 34 activists constant “dispossession, oppression
were students from the University of and alienation”.2
Sydney. They had just embarked on a
two-week journey around country The Freedom Rides marked the
NSW on a Freedom Ride for the beginning of the Civil Rights
equality of Indigenous Australians. Movement of the 1960s and
These 34 students were all apart of “Australia’s racial awakening”.3 The
Student Action For Aborigines (SAFA), Riders were, according to historian
led by SAFA leader Charles Perkins. Jennifer Clarke:
Their main objectives were to survey
the living conditions of the Indigenous “Idealistic, apprehensive and willing to
communities in country NSW and confront the problem of racial
create public awareness. But there prejudice head-on”4
were 34 riders on that bus and 11 of
them were women. What were their One of the most prominent
roles and experiences on this ride for figureheads of the Indigenous Civil
freedom? Rights Movement was Arrernte man,
1
Mary Lioupas 19352428

Charles Perkins. A third-year Arts counterparts. By exploring the journey
student at the University of Sydney, of three of the female riders, their
experiences can be put together to
garner a better understanding of their
experience as a collective on these
rides.

However, it has been noted that whilst
there are 11 women who had an
active role in the rides, not a single
one of these 11 were Indigenous
women. This is indicative of the ratio
of students at the time where there
were fewer women and no Indigenous

women.
Ann Curthoys and Charles Perkins with
other protesters, Februrary 1965

5
he was the President of SAFA and the
spokesperson during and after the
Freedom Rides. 6 For the first leg of
the rides, Charles Perkins was the only
Indigenous rider and thus would have
had a different perspective and
experience on the rides as opposed to
his non-indigenous counterparts. The
name Charles Perkins is almost
synonymous with Freedom Rides, and
as he is an Indigenous activist, this is
not unusual or undeserved. There are
numerous works on Charles Perkins
and his Freedom Ride, but not many at
all on the 11 women who sat

alongside him on that bus. Machteld Hali (left) and Ann Curthoys (far
right) with fellow rider in Walgett,
Feburary 1965 8
11/34
Out of these 34 students activists, 11 Ann Curthoys
members were women, these women Initial research had brought about
were Ann Curthoys, Beth Hansen, multiple sources about or written by
Helen Gray, Judith Rich, Louise Ann Curthoys, but upon further
Higham, Machteld Hali, Pat Healy, research, the voices of the other
Robyn Iredale, Sue Johnston, Sue women started popping up.
Reeves and Wendy Golding.7 Apart Ann noted that it could sometimes be
from Ann Curthoys, not much was a difficult environment for the women
generally known about these women as there were a “number of men who
freedom riders that had just as much set out to dominate” and used their
an important role as their male “voices to control the event”.9 She
2

recalls that she did not always enjoy but not right over” 13
the ride itself.10 One of the greatest
resources for the freedom rides is Machteld Hali, an immigrant
Ann’s diary which provides a first hand rider
insight into her experience on the Machteld Hali was a SAFA member
rides. Ann recalls that she wrote her and Freedom Rider who was born in
diary in a deliberately “very matter-of- the Netherlands and spent much of
fact way”11 and was careful not too her childhood in Indonesia when it
say anything too over-emotional or was occupied by the Dutch.14 As an
embarrassing in case it was found and immigrant in Australia, she had a
read by one of the other riders. unique experience with assimilation
and discrimination, which she notes
made her sympathetic to the
indigenous fight for civil liberties.15
However in an interview with The Big
Smoke states that the non-indigenous
riders had “no clue what real
discrimination, real racism, looked
like”.16 Her experience on the rides
had exposed what it was to really live
in a racist society and whilst the
discrimination she experienced was
difficult for her, she could go through
the world without being easily
identified as someone who was
“different”.17 Her fellow rider Pat
Healy shared a similar sentiment:

Ann Curthoys’ diary entry on the bus “Most of us knew the Aborigines lived
incident in Walgett, 15 February in shocking conditions, but none quite
196512 knew what to expect; we were
doubtful about the whole thing”18
After their demonstrations in Walgett,
the bus was chased off the road by Pat Healy
some hostile white community Pat along with fellow riders Charles
members. Ann’s entry from that night Perkins and Jim Spiegelman formed
was predominantly factual: the executive of SAFA and was the
only female rider to be on the
“About 3 miles out of town a truck executive. Pat had a significant role in
tried to push us off the road. There getting the freedom rides on the road
was a stream of about 10 cars as she “almost single-handedly”19
following us and we thought they were organised some of the folk concerts
full of hostile people and so we were that raised some of the money for the
all pretty worried. On the third try he rides.
escaped the truck along the side of the
bus and forced the bus driver to
swerve off the road. It tipped slightly
3

privileged university students, who had
the wherewithal and the money to
take off on a trip around New South
Wales”28

This indicates that Pat was aware of
the privilege that almost all of the
riders held as white students of a
privileged university. This would have
affected the way they had

John Prowles, Charles Perkins, Pat Healy and experienced the rides.
20
Jim Spiegelman plan the Freedom Ride

Pat recalls that upon seeing the living
condition of the indigenous people in
Wellington (one of their stops on the
ride), feeling “complete numbness and
shock”.21 The ‘tour executive’ of which
Pat was on, had the task of
representing the students to ‘outside
bodies’ and were in charge of
maintaining a disciplined tour.22 Pat
recalls that one of the most awakening Machteld Hali and other female riders
preparing pickett signs at Walgett, February
experiences of the ride was when the 29
1965
bus was run off the road by angry
townspeople from Walgett and
Pat Walford and her “angry
distinctly remembers the male riders
shouting “girls to the back! Girls to the monologue”
back!”.23 During the demonstration at Pat Walford was a Murri woman that
the RSL in Walgett, the students the other Freedom Riders
experienced a barrage of abuse from encountered during their stop in
the white community who were Walgett. After witnessing the backlash
becoming ‘increasingly hostile’.24 Pat over the riders presence in town, Pat
notes that this was the first time that “delivered an angry monologue” 30
she “realised how heated the white that highlighted the “double standards
country people were about our “and the “secrecy of sexual relations”
31
presence and about our image”.25 This that plagued Walgett.
was in reference to how the women Although Pat Walford wasn’t a student
were dresses, all wearing “miniskirts on that bus, she broke open the
or tight jeans”.26 Looking back on the conversation about the discrimination
rides and her experience, pat of Indigenous people in Walgett. She
considers their appearance and what enabled other indigenous women in
they were doing to be a ‘great Walgett to also speak up about the
affront”27: injustices they faced.
Ann Curthoys notes that after Pat’s
“I’ve often thought subsequently that monologue that “Walgett was
part of the being affronted was that- finished” and “had no answer to racial
here were we, relatively university discrimination”.32 Despite Pat not
4

being a rider, her contribution to the highlights how it is prevalent in history
rides ad her perspective as an that the white voices often
indigenous woman was invaluable to “overshadow” 34 the voices of people
the rides and to an extent was of colour. One of the most prominent
responsible for creating a platform for recount or record of Pat Walford, the
their efforts in Walgett. Ann also Murri woman from Walgett have
comments that Pat’s action of come from Ann Curthoys, which whilst
disclosing, “that which was known but are accurate, are told from the
unspeakable, have become legend perspective of a white woman. Charles
among Aboriginal people in that Perkins also details Pat Walford’s role
region”.33 in the rides in his book A Bastard Like
Were it not for Pat speaking up in Me, which let her story come from an
Walgett and breaking open the indigenous perspective albeit a male
standards of living, the rider’s efforts perspective.
would not have been as significant.
Whilst Pat Walford was not a rider, White perspective on a black
her actions during the rides helped the issue
riders gain traction in Walgett and Whilst it is important to investigate
make their demonstrations successful. the role of the women, it is even more
This shows how although there were important to note that as they are all
no Indigenous women on the rides white it is impossible to obtain a
themselves, indigenous women still perspective that is not shaped by
played an important roles in is white privileges’ and experiences.
success. Whilst these women would have had a
different experience on the freedom
Race v. Gender rides than the men, had there also
In terms of the Freedom Rides, gender been indigenous women, they would
and race do intertwine but can also have had a far different experience.
have a division amongst the riders
themselves. This is not to discredit the
efforts and experiences of the female
riders but rather to comment on how
they could not accurately describe
what it was like to experience the
rides as an Indigenous woman.
Bell Hooks best articulates the
relationship between race and gender
in her work Ain’t I a woman? Although
its primary focus is on American
women, it establishes themes in Ann (pink shirt) with Freedom Riders and
activism that translates to Australian Aboriginal community members on the steps
of the Town Hall in Moree in 2015 (ABC News:
history. It is important to focus as Kerrin Thomas)
35
most of the accounts on the Freedom

Rides have come from the White
Remembering the Ride
riders and all of the female riders
We are now 54 years down the track;
accounts have come from white riders
the efforts of these women and their
an none were indigenous. Bell
5

fellow riders have not disappeared the roles of these women and all they
with time. had achieved have been diligently
recorded.
With Charles Perkins’ death in 2000,
Ann Curthoys remains the only Although we still have far to go in
prominent spokesperson for the terms of complete racial equality in
freedom rides and often discusses her Australia, the journey that began with
experiences both during the rides and the 11 Women and their 23 fellow
after. A lot of her historical work male rider’s, mobilised the road to
involves the rides. She has worked reconciliation.
exceptionally hard to make sure that

1
Figure 1
2
Matthew Thomas, ‘The 1967 Referendum’, Parliament of Australia [website], (25/05/2017)
<https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Li
brary/FlagPost/2017/May/The_1967_Referendum> accessed 14 Oct. 2019
3
Jennifer Clark, “'Now It Seems It Is Australia's Turn': Students and the Freedom
Ride.” Aborigines & Activism: Race, Aborigines & the Coming of the Sixties to Australia,
(UWA Publishing, 2008) 120
4
Jennifer Clark, “'Now It Seems It Is Australia's Turn': Students and the Freedom
Ride.” Aborigines & Activism: Race, Aborigines & the Coming of the Sixties to Australia,
(UWA Publishing, 2008) 120
5
Exhibition: Commemorating the Freedom Ride <https://aiatsis.gov.au/exhibitions/1965-
freedom-ride>
6
freedom-ride>
7
freedom-ride>
8
Figure 3
9
Ann Curthoys, “Memory, History, and Ego-Histoire: Narrating and Re-Enacting the
Australian Freedom Ride.” Historical Reflections, vol. 38, no. 2, (2012) 32
10
Ann Curthoys, “Memory, History, and Ego-Histoire: Narrating and Re-Enacting the
Australian Freedom Ride.” Historical Reflections, vol. 38, no. 2, (2012) 32
11
Ann Curthoys, Freedom Ride: a Freedom Rider Remembers. (Allen & Unwin, 2003) 71
12
Page #6: AIATSIS Digitised Collection: Ann Curthoys Diary (1965)
13
Figure 4
14
Ingeborg van Teeseling, ‘Machteld Hali: One migrant who faced our racism, and did
something about it’, The Big Smoke, (13/01/2019)
<https://www.thebigsmoke.com.au/2019/01/13/75802/> accessed 8 Oct. 2019
15
16
6

17
18
Patricia Healy, ‘Interviews with Charles Perkins, Jim Spigelman, Patricia Healy, Patrick
Dawson and John Butterworth’ [transcript], (AIATSIS, April 1965), accessed 10 Oct. 2019
19
20
Figure 5
21

22

23
Ann Curthoys, “The NSW Freedom Rides.” Agora, vol. 46, no. 1, (2011) 22
24

25

26

27

28

29
Figure 6
30

31

32
33
34
Bell Hooks, Ain't I a Woman : Black Women and Feminism. South End Press, (1981) 122

35
Figure 7

7

Bibliography

Primary Sources
Curthoys, Ann, ‘Ann Curthoys’ Diary from the Freedom Rides’ (15/02/1965) 6

Healy, Patricia, ‘Interviews with Charles Perkins, Jim Spigelman, Patricia

Healy, Patrick Dawson and John Butterworth’ [transcript], (AIATSIS, April 1965),
accessed 10 Oct. 2019

van Teeseling, Ingeborg, ‘Machteld Hali: One migrant who faced our racism, and
did something about it’, The Big Smoke, (13/01/2019)

Secondary Sources
Clark, Jennifer. “'Now It Seems It Is Australia's Turn': Students and the Freedom
Ride.” Aborigines & Activism: Race, Aborigines & the Coming of the Sixties to
Australia, (UWA Publishing, 2008) 120

Curthoys, Ann, Freedom Ride: a Freedom Rider Remembers. (Allen & Unwin, 2003)
57-101

Curthoys, Ann, “Memory, History, and Ego-Histoire: Narrating and Re-Enacting
the Australian Freedom Ride.” Historical Reflections, vol. 38, no. 2, (2012) 32

Curthoys, Ann, “The NSW Freedom Rides.” Agora, vol. 46, no. 1, (2011) 23

Exhibition: Commemorating the Freedom Ride
<https://aiatsis.gov.au/exhibitions/1965-freedom-ride>

Hooks, Bell, Ain't I a Woman : Black Women and Feminism. South End Press, (1981)
122

Thomas, Matthew,‘The 1967 Referendum’, Parliament of Australia [website],
(25/05/2017)
<https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliame
ntary_Library/FlagPost/2017/May/The_1967_Referendum> accessed 14 Oct. 2019

8

Figures

Figure 1

item 220: Tribune Negatives Including the Freedom Rides SAFA (Student Action For Aboriginals) Trip
(17- 26 February, 1965.) With thanks to Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
and Courtesy SEARCH Foundation

Figure 2

Ann Curthoys (in blue top) with other protesters on the 1965 Freedom Ride, Photo
courtesy of ABC News and Louise Higham (1965)

Figure 3
9

Sydney University student Ann Curthoys (right) and other protesters in Walgett, NSW, 1965,
Photo courtesy of ABC News and Pat Healy (1965)

Figure 4

Page #6: AIATSIS Digitised Collection: Ann Curthoys Diary (1965)

Figure 5

Planning: Photo courtesy of Fairfax Photo Library,
<http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/images/history/1960s/freedom/planning.jpg>
(1964)
Figure 6

Item 220: Tribune Negatives Including the Freedom Rides SAFA (Student Action For
Aboriginals) Trip (17- 26 February, 1965.) With thanks to Mitchell Library, State
Library of New South Wales and Courtesy SEARCH Foundation

10

Figure 7

Ann (pink shirt) with Freedom Riders and Aboriginal community members on the
steps of the Town Hall in Moree in 2015, Photo courtesy of Kerrin Thomas and ABC
News, (2015)

11

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The Ladies on the Bus: experiences and roles of the

most of the accounts on the Freedom

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