Anti-Apartheid activist Irene Gale talks about her lifelong friendship with Phyllis Naidoo, and friend Dennis Brutus, how the Gale family arrived in Chicago on the day that Steve Biko was killed, Dennis set up a Steve Biko Memorial Committee at the North Western University (where Jim Gale studied with him as one of his students) and together with many thousands of citizens and student they ended up being able to…
I have called Adelaide home for the last 50 years. I was born in South Africa of Scots, English, and probably most significantly, devout but politically-active Irish-Catholic stock (one of my uncles was the progressive and relentlessly anti-apartheid Catholic archbishop of Durban – Archbishop Denis Hurley). My family emigrated to Australia in 1972 to get us all as far away as possible from the military conscription, surveillance, and intimidation of…
Interview conducted February 2021 on unceded Kaurna land. Always was, always will be. Irene’s reflections on the Springbok tour. We had arrived in Adelaide from NZ a couple of months before, and the family had spent most of the time in and around Elizabeth. The airport was an amazing sight! There were so many people – I would guess many thousands – they were not only filling the building,…
Sue Tilley gives us some fascinating insights into the dicomfort of privilege and the reality of living under apartheid rule. She goes on to talk about the similarites between the two countries, Sth Africa and Australia under colonialism and how when people awaken to the injustice around them they are compelled to act.
This is the beginning of several stories, an assortment of anecdotes, emails and other recordings and readings that provide a brief insight into the anti-apartheid actions in Australia and New Zealand. Here Irene Gale, AM talks about her long- term relationship and combined activism with her dear South African friend Phyllis Naidoo. Irene and son Roger Gale Roger Gale, son of Irene and Jim Gale both renowned anti-apartheid activists, gives…
