Gladys Elphick was raised on Point Pearce Mission in South Australia. Elphick had a strong sense of justice and spent her life involved in community work, fighting for equality for Indigenous Australians in health care, legal services, housing and living conditions. She founded the Aboriginal Women's Council and later became its Treasurer and first President. In 1973 the Aboriginal Women's Council created an Aboriginal Community Centre in Adelaide which provided medical care, legal aid and community services to Indigenous men and women.
Elphick was also a member of the Aboriginal Press Association and the Aborigines Advancement League. Gladys Elphick was chosen as one of 150 great South Australians by a panel of The Advertiser senior writers to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of The Advertiser newspaper, 12 April 2008.
(Main source: Some Aboriginal Women Pathfinders: their difficulties and their achievements , Women's Christian Temperance Union of Australia, [1980], pp. 74-78)
