Everything about Mum Shirl Smith totally explained
Shirley Smith was a prominent
Aboriginal Australian and activist.
Colleen Shirley Perry was born of
Wiradjuri descent in 1924 at Erambie Reserve, Cowra, in
New South Wales. Her married name was Shirley Smith.
Smith attended the Erambie Mission School, although her education was impaired by epilepsy, at a time when medication for the disease didn't exist. She moved with her family in the mid 1930s and became a well-known resident of
South Sydney. Although Smith couldn't read or write, she could speak 16 different Aboriginal languages.
Smith began to visit Aboriginal people in prison after one of her brothers was incarcerated and she discovered that her visits were beneficial to other prisoners as well. Her community activism also saw her accompanying indigenous people who were unfamiliar with the legal system to court when they'd been charged with a crime. Her nickname came from her habit of replying, "I’m his Mum," whenever officials queried her relationship with the prisoners - the name by which she became widely known.
Smith's welfare work, however, wasn't confined only to prisons and the legal system. She also spent considerable time and money finding homes for children whose parents couldn't look after them, and helping displaced children to find their own parents again. The children with nowhere to go often ended up living with her. By the early 1990s she'd raised over 60 children. Likewise, many people with no family or friends in Sydney arrived at Mum Shirl’s
Redfern house seeking shelter.
In 1970, Smith, along with Ken Brindle, and Chicka and Elsa Dixon, were the guiding force behind a group of young Aboriginal men and women who were involved in the
campaign for land rights by the
Gurindji people. This same group, with
Fred Hollows and others helped to establish the
Aboriginal Medical Service in 1971. They also helped establish the
Aboriginal Legal Service in 1971, the Aboriginal Black Theatre, the
Aboriginal Tent Embassy, the
Aboriginal Children’s Service, the
Aboriginal Housing Company and the Detoxification Centre at Wiseman’s Ferry.
"Mum Shirl" was an integral and committed part of the Catholic church of St Vincent's, Redfern with the renowned
Fr Ted Kennedy. She was a devout
Catholic and a mistress of the bon mot: one of her favourites being "There's nothing out of plumb with the Catholic religion; it's the way Catholics practise it". Local clergyman Father Kennedy said of her: "She comforted the afflicted - but she didn't promise not to afflict the comfortable". Smith also gave regularly of her time to visit Australian (largely) caucasian
schools and communities as part of educating the broader Australian community on Aboriginal issues and concerns.
Smith's work has been commemorated with an
Order of Australia and an
Order of the British Empire. She died in 1998 and is survived by her daughter Beatrice, her sister Harriet and her brother Joe along with her grandchildren, great-grandchildren nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews and great, great nieces and nephews.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mum Shirl Smith'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://mum__shirl__smith.totallyexplained.com">Mum (Shirl) Smith Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
