Mum shirl autobiography example

Mum Shirl (Mrs Shirley Smith), Town Hall, Sydney, 1988. Source: National Library of Australia

Shirley Smith (better known as ‘Mum Shirl’), an Aboriginal woman of Wiradjuri descent, was born Shirley Colleen Perry on Erambie Reserve in Cowra on 21 November 1924 [1].

During her early years, Shirley’s parents, Isabel and Joseph Perry spent time working as drovers in nearby Grenfell and her father was also one of the Aboriginal councilors at the Erambie mission.

Shirley was also very close to her grandfather, Daniel Boney, who she described as ‘a calm and wise man, who had ethereal connection with the country.’ [2].

When Shirley was six, her grandfather was expelled from Erambie and Shirley moved with her grandparents, to Cowra, where her grandfather and his brother built a house under a railway bridge, ‘Ryan’s place’.

At some point they moved to Waterloo in Sydney, but her grandfather didn’t like it and returned to Cowra. Her fat