Emma Jane Callaghan (28 February 1884 - 31 December 1979) was an Australian Aboriginal midwife, Indigenous rights/ activist supporter, nurse and Indigenous Culture Recorder.

Early life

Emma Foot was born a younger

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops ( gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb). A multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with t ...

to Kathleen Sims of the

Tharawal The Dharawal people, also spelt Tharawal and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people, identified by the Dharawal language. Traditionally, they lived as hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans with ties of kinship, ...

people and Willam Foot in

La Perouse, New South Wales La Perouse is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The suburb of La Perouse is located about southeast of the Sydney central business district, in the City of Randwick. The La Perouse peninsula is th ...

. At age thirteen although barely educated herself, Callaghan became a teacher within an Aboriginal settlement in Bellbrook, New South Wales.

Teaching and caring career

Emma lived on this settlement for twenty-five years alongside Retta Long helping with childbirth, birth registration, and the ill. She was proficient in needlework and was also a translator of the Dhanggati language, the tongue of her first husband, Athol Callaghan's tribe, working with biblical tales. Her new home in Armidale was later visited by

Ellen Kent Hughes Ellen Mary Kent Hughes, (29 August 1893 – 16 May 1979) was an Australian medical doctor and council alderman. She was the first woman to serve on a local government council in Queensland, serving on the Kingaroy Shire Council from 1923 to 192 ...

. In the same year as her second husband, Henry James Cook's death, she met

Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (27 August 1968), born Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark ( el, Μαρίνα), was a Greek princess by birth and a British princess by marriage. She was a daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark an ...

. She died in

Randwick, New South Wales Randwick is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Randwick is located 6 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the City of Ra ...

, aged 95.

Commemoration

In 1985 Callaghan's home was preserved by the State government. In November 2023 it was announced that Callaghan was one of eight women chosen to be commemorated in the second round of blue plaques sponsored by the Government of New South Wales alongside, among others, Kathleen Butler, godmother of Sydney Harbour Bridge; Susan Katherina Schardt;

Dorothy Drain Dorothy Drain (16 August 1909 – 31 May 1996) was an Australian journalist, columnist, war correspondent, editor and poet. She worked as a journalist with ''The Australian Women's Weekly'' for 38 years, with the final five years being as its e ...

, one of Australia's first female war correspondents; writer Charmian Clift; Pearl Mary Gibbs, an Aboriginal rights movement activist; and charity worker

Grace Emily Munro Grace Emily Munro ( Gordon, 25 March 1879 – 23 July 1964) was an Australian World War One volunteer, charity worker, and founder of the Country Women's Association. Early life Grace Emily Munro was born on 25 March 1879 in Warialda, New ...

References

1884 births 1979 deaths People from New South Wales Indigenous Australian people Australian midwives {{Australia-bio-stub