Freda Glynn

Alfreda "Freda" Glynn (born 24 August 1939), also known as Freda Thornton, is a Kaytetye photographer and media specialist. She was the first co-director of the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association Group of Companies, which incorporates CAAMA and Imparja.

Early life and family Glynn was born on 24 August 1939 at Wood Green Station (Atartinga), north of Alice Springs, the daughter of Alf Price and Topsy Glynn, (According to 1940 letter from R.) H. Purvis of Wood Green Station, Central Australia, to the Minister of the Interior about Topsy Glynn: "I would explain that this girl [Topsy] is the daughter of James Glynn, halfcaste and a lubra... Glynn some years ago took Mr F R W Scott to Oodnadatta from Stirling Station for medical aid, while on the trip (by buggy approx 1919) his lubra (the mother of Topsy) was killed by the blacks, and Glynn gave the girl to bring up as it was almost impossible for him to do so in his nomadic job of stockman. In due course I prevailed upon the late Commissioner of Police R Stott to let the girl go to the institution, this he allowed although the girl is not a half-caste, conditionally that I took her out and gave her a job on the station when she had finished schooling. This I did, and the girl remained here with quarters of her own. In 1936 the girl gave birth to a child and stated that Ron Price was the father, this fact was admitted by Price, later I reported the birth and M C Muldoon came here on the case. In 1939, another child was born to her and Alf Price, brother of the father of her first child was the father. This birth wqas reported. I had occasion to take the girl wit her second child to the doctor and then after all the years, it was deemed fit to put her back in the institution... etc. Freda's father was Rona's father's brother, Alf Price. (Hesketh), the first lone woman to run a station, after her husband Fred, telegraph master of Alice Springs Telegraph Station, had died. Freda never knew her father.

Topsy was again admitted to The Bungalow on 12 September 1939, when Freda was just three weeks old and Rona was three years old, as there were post-birth health issues to be attended to, the authorities were trying to determine who Freda's father was, and owing to "the promiscuous manner in which Topsy was giving birth to half-caste infants at Wood Green station it was...considered to be in the girls best interests for her and her children to remain in the Institution". Topsy was not keen to return to the station, as she was employed by Purvis "as housemaid and cook and had also done stockwork and windmill repair work around the station and in return had only received clothing and rations", and was happy working as a laundress at the institution. However, by November 1940, Topsy was again working for Purvis at Wood Green under an agreement similar to that which governed the employment of half-caste girls in the township. In late May 1942 a number of other children from The Bungalow were escorted to Mulgoa via Adelaide

Education

Career After leaving school, in 1956, Glynn worked at Trish Collier's photographic studio in the darkroom; she was one of the first Aboriginal girls in Alice Springs to get a job other than as a domestic or cleaner. She had a number of other roles before she became involved in media. She also worked as a cleaner, and raised five children during this time. where she began recording interviews around town, doing the program "links" and voice-overs as well as working on English language programming. Following this Glynn became an advocate for Aboriginal media and was appointed as a committee member of CAAMA when it was chartered on 12 May 1980; this again was a voluntary position.

Following her time at CAAMA, Glynn continued to work in media.

2002: Award for Contribution to Indigenous Media at the Third Tudawali Indigenous Film and Video Awards

In film In 2002 Glynn played Grandma Nina in the short drama film Shit Skin, about a young man who takes his grandmother back to her childhood community, in order to reconnect with her surviving family. The film had its world premiere at the 2018 Adelaide Film Festival on 13 October 2018, which was attended by the family, and was also screened at the 2019 Sydney Film Festival, at which Freda Glynn addressed the audience. is another granddaughter.

Footnotes