Sisters Rona and Freda Glynn were born in 1936 and 1939, respectively, at Woodgreen Station, in Anmatjere country, approx. 150 km north of Alice Springs. Their mother was Topsy Glynn, and when Freda was still a small baby, the family was removed from the station and placed at The Bungalow at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station – known at the time as a ‘half-caste institution’. To stay with her children, Topsy worked as a laundress there.
In 1941, during World War II, the family was evacuated from Alice Springs to Sydney, where they stayed at a Church Missionary Society evacuee camp in the Blue Mountains until their return to Alice Springs in 1949.
After completing their education the sisters became very successful in their own fields. Rona took on a role as teacher at Hartley Street Primary School in Central Australia, becoming the first Indigenous school teacher in the Northern Territory. Freda’s career took another path, and after leaving school in 1956 she worked at Trish Collier’s photographic studio in the darkroom. She was one of the first Indigenous girls in Alice Springs to get a job other than as a domestic or cleaner.
Come back next week as we continue exploring the lives of both sisters.
Image: Sister Eileen Heath, ‘Rona and Freda Glynn’, c. 1950s. LANT Collection, NTRS 2557.
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