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.

Shirley attended the Erambie Mission School. Her education was impaired by epilepsy, at a time when medication for the disease did not exist. She moved to Sydney with her family in in the mid 1930s. She became a well-known resident of South Sydney. Shirley could not read or write, but could speak 16 different Aboriginal languages.

Shirley began to visit Aboriginal people in prison after one of her brothers was sent there and she found that her visits were appreciated by other prisoners as well. Her community activism also saw her accompanying indigenous people - often alienated and confused by the legal system - to court when they had 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.

Her welfare work was not confined only to prisons and the legal system. She also spent considerable time and money finding homes for children whose parents could not 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 had 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, Shirley, 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 Gurindji campaign for land rights. 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". Fr Kennedy said of her: "She comforted the afflicted - but she didn't promise not to afflict the comfortable". Mum Shirl also gave regularly of her time to visit Australian schools and communities as part of educating the broader Australian community on Aboriginal issues and concerns.

Her work has been commemorated with an Order of Australia and an Order of the British Empire. Mum Shirl 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.

External links

• ABC website commemorating Mum Shirl
• Gadigal Commemoration
• Links to tributes on the "Church Mouse" website

Australian Roman Catholics | Indigenous Australian leaders | Officers of the Order of Australia | Officers of the Order of the British Empire