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Gladys Namagu at entrance to reporters' room, NT News, when she was residing with the Bowditch family . The hole in the door was caused by the editor finding himself locked out one night, so he used a commando blow to gain entry . Photo by Peter Simon.
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His widespread reputation in the Northern Territory as a man
who would help anybody in trouble
saw Bowditch deeply
involved in the long battle involving two “little people”- rawboned white drover
Mick Daly, 36, of Top Springs, NT, and
slight Aboriginal girl , Gladys
Namagu , 22, of Hall’s Creek, W.A. Daly a burly six footer ,with little education , had been living with Namagu,
who had been born a spastic and speyed
by her tribe so as not to have children.
By Peter Simon
She travelled
with Mick as his droving team moved stock about the North . He
was arrested and appeared in the
Katherine court in August 1959 for cohabitating with
Namagu , who in the Territory was
regarded as a ward under the protection of the Director of Aboriginal
Affairs, Harry Giese.
In court , Daly declared his love for Gladys and said he wanted to marry her . Mr Dodds SM adjourned the case and asked for an (Aboriginal) Welfare Department report . The report did not consider Daly a suitable person to marry Namagu and he was convicted and placed on a 12 months’ good behaviour bond. He still maintained he wanted to marry Gladys.
A police officer advised Daly to contact the editor of the Darwin newspaper, Jim Bowditch , as he helped people in trouble. The Welfare Department moved Gladys to the Warrabri settlement. Daly rang Bowditch and explained his plight.
This set the wheels in motion in what became another major national story in which the editor became deeply and personally involved. After checking Daly’s account , Bowditch raised the matter in the paper . As often happened, Bowditch consulted his lawyer friend Dick Ward , described as the Clarence Darrow of the Territory , the Member for Port Darwin in the NT Legislative Council , who became a key player in the saga .
On Daly’s behalf, Ward made
an official application for permission to marry Gladys. Giese
refused , without meeting Daly,
and said he relied on reports from field officers. In an editorial, Bowditch asked : Could it be that the department believes men who sleep with Aboriginal women are not the right type to marry them ? If that principle were applied, a great many of the marriages between whites would never take place .
The
fact that Daly could hardly read or write, drank a lot and
was a drover, no doubt coloured
Giese’s attitude. Bowditch said
the reports had probably been “ totally unfavourable .” On the other hand ,
Gladys and Mick got along very well .
There were few , if any , white women who
would put up with his way of life
.
had
While she had led a tough life in Western
Australia and her twisted body carried a number
of scars , her eyes were full of life . As
the case gained momentum, wide media coverage , with questions in Federal
parliament and the Legislative Council , Namagu was brought to Darwin and sent to Bagot compound.
According to Bowditch, journalist Doug Lockwoood , at first , had not agreed with Bowditch’s stand on the matter . Lockwood
felt Giese had been
correct in refusing permission for Daly to marry
Namagu as he was a "rough
egg ". Bowditch invited
Lockwood to come with him to Bagot and
check on the departmental claim
that she could not marry Mick because
she was already tribally married to a man in W.A. Namagu stated over and over that s he wanted to marry Mick.
It was suggested by a senior government officer that she was simply
saying what the questioners wanted when she stated that she wished to marry Mick.
She admitted living with a man in her tribe for a while
but said she could not be
tribally married because she was unable
to have children. Tribal elders had
operated on her to prevent
her having children .
Bowditch
said that as a result of that questioning
of Gladys, Lockwood became convinced that she wanted to marry the
drover. The way officials had
acted at the questioning , refusing to
accept her answers, angered
Bowditch so much that he went
away fuming .
Daly
was in town at the time and anxious to
see Gladys . Bowditch devised a
daring plan . Early the next day ,
he got reporter Keith Willey to drive him to Bagot
compound which was “off limits”
to all whites except those with passes
or employed there. Before he clambered over the fence,
he told Willey to ring the police
station if he did not see him in an hour’s time . Willey laughed. Bowditch entered the compound and Aborigines directed him to Gladys . He then “ kidnapped ” her - told her
to come to his place and she would see Mick .
She gladly gathered her meagre
belongings and followed . They
climbed over the fence to the
waiting " get away car ". Taken to the Bowditch residence , she and Mick
sat and hugged under a banana
tree. Bowditch then dashed off
and obtained a permit for five
shillings to employ an Aborigine, Namagu , before the hue
and cry began .
Ward
carried on the legal battle and received numerous letters
from Giese refusing to budge. The letters were legalistic .
Ward suggested that Bowditch should
run the letters to reveal
the cold official line. Bowditch thought this was a brilliant idea
. In fairness, he rang Giese
and told him what was about to
happen and asked him for comment.
What
transpired went something like
this : Giese said he would have to get legal advice about the paper intending to run his letters
and rang off ; Giese rang
back and said he was claiming copyright
to the letters and refused permission
for them to be published ;
Bowditch rang off and
contacted Ward for advice , informing him
that Harry was claiming copyright ; after listening to
Ward , Bowditch began to laugh and rang off ; then Bowditch rang Giese
and informed him that, acting on
legal advice, the paper was still going to run the letters because it was
thought that his (Giese’s ) letters had no commercial value and copyright did
not apply ; end of conversation .
Bowditch then
gleefully narrated the episode
to office staff. The
letters were run and readers were told
that Giese’s claim to copyright had been rejected.
In
the Legislative Council where Ward
was the leader of the minority elected
members , the Daly-Namagu case was aired. In a no confidence motion launched by Ward against Harry
Giese , the lawyer delivered a
brilliant speech without notes for one
hour . A Hansard reporter subsequently said Ward
had been a pleasure to record , being concise and using perfect English. Ward, he added , could hold his own in
the British parliament.
By contrast , the Hansard
man said the Minister for Foreign Affairs in
the federal House of Representatives , Sir Garfield Barwick , who stopped
in mid sentence and lost his train of thought , had been terrible to record.
[ As Chief Justice of Australia, Sir Garfield would later advise the Governor-General , Sir John Kerr , that he was entitled to dismiss the Whitlam government .]
During the debate a letter from
Daly to Bowditch was read which gave an insight into the
mind of the man the
authorities would not let marry
Gladys. With an
Eva Downs(cattle station ) , 22-9-59 dateline , it read:-
Dear Jim , I just got your letter yesterday & I was
verry pleased to hear from you that Gladys is well, I miss her
verry much too I hope I
can get married to her after I am finished with these bullocks, we will be at Anthony’s Lagoon dip next Friday and it will be nearly the
end of november before we are
finished . I hope Gladys dos’nt change
her mind in that time because I
love her verry much &; I’m sure
that I wont chang my
mind about her. I would like Gladys to stay
with you Jim . I
think she would be more happier
& in good company with you
people . Your wife and Zenie (
this was Zena, Betty’s sister ) treat
her verry well & I appreaciate it.
Well Jim I will be looking forward to your letter aggain I think
the best place to addres the next one letter Brunet Downs . Im not
sure if that spelt right you had better look at the map.
Gladys told me on the
phone She went swimming. I enjoyed
that little chat with her, how
did she like the circus . Tell her we seen the elephants when we were
going to Katherine in the Taxi we
were patting them on the Trunk .
I gave Johnny Wyndham (pound sign )
10 ($20) for Gladys &I sent (pound ) 4 ($8) for Gladys last letter did you get them .
If you get a chance
you want to take Gladys out
fishing I can garentee she is a verry
good fisherman. Well Jim I will say Cheerio for now & I
hope to hear from
you soon please let me know how
things are progresssing , allso
exstend my thanks to Dick Ward I’m very grateful
for his help , only for him
Gladys would be in W.A. eating dry bread & beef
& sleeping in the ashers with dogs and blackfellows.
Give my regards to Betty
and Zena
& the children. I hope you
are all well . The letter had a postscript : Sending a few bob
for Glady.
The Member for Elsey,
Harold “ Tiger “ Brennan ,
asked Giese if this was the letter of an insincere man . Brennan said he had accompanied Ward to
Giese’s office and the Director of
Welfare had not wanted to
see Daly or Gladys. When Giese had been asked if he would like
to ask Gladys any question he had none to
ask . Members could see from the letter that
Daly was “absolutely honest ” and sincere in his affection for his girl . He went on to say he did not know if the nominated government representatives, who always had the balance
of power, had been instructed which way to vote . But if
Daly’s letter did not change
their views then they would fall low in
Brennan’s estimation .
While Gladys was living at the Bowditch house she suddenly became rotund about the stomach region and Jim feared that she was pregnant . She was induced to undergo a medical examination and it was discovered that she had developed a layer of fat, no doubt due to the changed diet and better life she was living . In particular, she loved powdered milk , and eagerly mixed up jugs of milk and drank them quickly. She would use a tin of powdered milk a day . At times she came to the News office with Betty Bowditch , usually wearing one of Betty's hats , and stood about , shyly listening . When she spoke she had a high pitched voice . Keith Willey , who had helped Bowditch “kidnap” Gladys from Bagot , usually received a big smile and a toothy hello from her.
Daly came to Darwin
after some droving and made a bee-line for
the Bowditch residence , hoping to find his love
there . Bowditch had cause to go home
and found Mick and Gladys sitting under the banana trees , drinking ...
and it was not powdered milk
. Knowing that Mick
could be charged with supplying
liquor to an Aborigine, Jim
hastily bundled them inside.
As
Gladys had lived a
rough life , which Mick
had aptly described
as being in the ashes with dogs , living in
a house was a real
experience. Jim said Betty had a tough time looking after Gladys. Gladys had to be taught not to blow her nose
on her dress .
Daly declared that if
approval were given for him to
marry they would wed in the Catholic church. As the church recognised tribal marriage
and Gladys was
said to be tribally married to a man in WA , Darwin’s Catholic
head , Bishop J. P.
O’Loughlin said he could not approve of
their marriage. However, he eventually
set up a committee consisting of two missionaries , two Welfare
Department officers and Catholic
lawyer , John"Tiger " Lyons , Bowditch’s wrestling
partner , to investigate
the case .
The
man said to be Namagu’s tribal husband
was brought to Darwin from WA and questioned by the Bishop’s
committee. He stated that while
he and Gladys had lived
together for some time, they were not tribally married
because she was childless. Bishop
O’Loughlin announced there was
no impediment for Daly and Namagu to be
married in a Catholic church . The NT News
headlined GLADYS TO WED.
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Mick and Gladys at church . Kim Lockwood Photograph
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When
the Daly- Namagu marriage
ended after seven years some people
went to Bowditch with a “we told you so attitude” . He responded by
saying
many white marriages did not
last so long. Bowditch said that Harry Giese remained a good friend to Gladys
after the marriage break up .
Gladys formed a relationship with a white pensioner who loved her dearly , but at times she caused him great distress when she succumbed to wanderlust . At times, beside himself with worry, the man would call on waterside union fix-it man , the late Brian Manning , and ask him to speak to Gladys and get her to come home . NEXT: The Murdoch interest in Darwin .
