Abstract. Suppose that a locally compact group G acts freely and properly on the right of a locally compact space T . Rieffel proved that if α is an action of G on a C * -algebra A and there is an equivariant embedding of C 0 (T ) in M (A), then the action α of G on A is proper, and the crossed product A⋊ α,r G is Morita equivalent to a generalised fixed-point algebra Fix(A, α) in M (A) α . We show that the assignment (A, α) → Fix(A, α) extends to a functor Fix on a category of C * -dynamical systems in which the isomorphisms are Morita equivalences, and that Rieffel's Morita equivalence implements a natural isomorphism between a crossed-product functor and Fix. From this, we deduce naturality of Mansfield imprimitivity for crossed products by coactions, improving results of Echterhoff-Kaliszewski-Quigg-Raeburn and Kaliszewski-Quigg-Raeburn, and naturality of a Morita equivalence for graph algebras due to Kumjian and Pask.