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The key to Australia's most successful referendum
Aunty Shirley Peisley was one of the Aboriginal women at the forefront of the 1967 referendum campaign. More than 50 years on, she continues to influence the next generation.
Published 4 July 2023 5:48am
By Peta Doherty
Source: SBS News
Image: Shirley Peisley in 1967.
It became one of the most iconic images of Australia's 1967 referendum; a young and hopeful Aboriginal woman pinning a ‘Vote Yes for Aborigines’ badge to a politician.
While ‘Aborigines’ is today an offensive term, that image is now proudly displayed at the Adelaide aged care facility Aunty Shirley Peisley calls home.
“We never went to bed, we were handing out how-to-vote cards all day, and during the night we celebrated,” the Ngarrindjeri Boandik Elder says.
Back then, Aunty Shirley was a self-described shy young woman from South Australia, but aged 26 she was thrust into the national spotlight as a key campaigner in Australia’s most successful referendum.
Aunty Shirley was 26 when she hit the campaign trail for the 1967 referendum. Source: Supplied
“We all felt excited about it because we knew we could do something to change what had happened in the past,” says Aunty Shirley, now 82.
“We were counted for the first time as human beings living in our own country.”
The theme of this year’s NAIDOC Week is ‘For Our Elders’, honouring the role Elders such as Aunty Shirley have played in communities as “cultural knowledge holders, trailblazers, nurturers, advocates, teachers, survivors, leaders, hard workers and our loved ones”.
Torres Strait Islander woman Tanya Hosch is the AFL's general manager of inclusion and social policy and was mentored by Aunty Shirley.
“What I still find uplifting about the 1967 referendum and the work of Shirley and the other leaders, is they were excited about the opportunity for change in the country,” she says.
“I think that became infectious.”
Aunty Shirley in 2017. Source: SBS News / Rachael Hocking
“Women were a very important part of that campaign, using their networks across families and communities to make sure that everyone knew what part they had to play in the campaign, and were supported to play that part.”
Aunty Shirley got involved with the 1967 campaign after joining the Aboriginal Women’s Council of South Australia, an organisation that established the state’s first Indigenous-focused NGOs.
Encouraged by then South Australian premier Don Dunston, “it was the older women who went out and talked because they were trusted, and they understood what was needed to be said,” Aunty Shirley says.
Tanya Hosch was mentored by Aunty Shirley. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
“The way that they worked together [in 1967] to build a people’s movement of support is what I’m hoping we can replicate with this campaign in 2023,” Hosch says.
In a 2013 interview with the State Library of South Australia, Aunty Shirley recalled how women led the 1967 campaign.
“The husbands had to stay at home and watch the kids, feed them and then put them to bed, while the women were out at meetings and making decisions,” she said.
“They were the voice … It was important they were seen like that.”
This image of Shirley Peisley was one of the most iconic of the 1967 referendum campaign.
“I was in awe of those strong-minded women,” Aunty Shirley told the State Library.
“It did change my life, in a way.”
Once Aunty Shirley found her voice, she went on to use it to create reforms that improved the lives of First Nations people across education, welfare, criminal justice, health and the arts.
She told the State Library she was driven by the stories of colonisation she heard when First Nations groups gathered in Canberra ahead of the referendum.
The experience of two Aboriginal stockmen from Watti Creek in the Northern Territory became etched into her conscience. Working from sun-up to late at night for no pay and little food, they felt powerless to protect their female relations from abuse by white stockmen.
“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” Aunty Shirley said.
“[They were] unable to say no because they didn’t have any rights. They didn’t have wages and they had no protections, so they couldn’t protect their woman.”
It inspired Aunty Shirley to study and she went on to become a probation and truancy officer, working with Aboriginal families involved in court disputes as well as women dealing with domestic violence and child protection.
Her contributions were recognised this year in an official portrait commissioned by Adelaide City Council. The portrait, by artist Ali Gumillya Baker, a Mirning woman, is the first of an Aboriginal person to hang on the walls of the council chamber.
The portrait of Aunty Shirley being revealed. Source: Supplied / Adelaide City Council
“Amongst all those men, Aunty Shirley will be staring out at deliberations and she will be telling us to do the right thing.”
Lomax-Smith said over 30 years she had observed how Aunty Shirley created change through the art of persuasion.
“She can charm the birds right out of the trees.”
“That’s my mum,” says Justin Peisley at his mother’s aged care home, a specialised facility for Aboriginal Elders that Aunty Shirley was instrumental in establishing.
“While everyone was arguing … my mum would just politely talk, and everyone would listen.”
Aunty Shirley today with her son Justin Peisley. Source: Supplied / Justin Peisley
“Everyone I worked with knew my mum.”
“I started realising how many changes she's made for my culture and my people and our history.”
“She would be telling the young ones coming up, ‘Believe in what you believe in, and know that you can make change.”
For much of her life, Aunty Shirley was an advocate for constitutional recognition of Australia’s First Nations people.
In 2013, she spoke in South Australia's parliament about replicating “the magic moment” of 1967.
“Can we replicate that moment? I’m sure we can,” she said.
NAIDOC Week is a national celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, history and cultures, and runs from July 2-9. Join the conversation #NAIDOC2023
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