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exhibition Mum Shirl | Black Saint of Redfern

From 4th to 27th July 2019
  • OPENING 4th July 2019 6:00 - 8:00 pm 326 Oxford Street, Paddington, NSW

The exhibition of historic paintings by artist Gordon Syron and limited edition photographs by his wife and partner, Elaine Syron, celebrate the life of Coleen Shirley Perry Smith AM MBE, better known as Mum Shirl – Black Saint of Redfern.

It is now 21 years since Shirley Smith (Mum Shirl) died, and a fitting time to celebrate her extraordinary life.
Mum Shirl is remembered as a straight talker with an astute ability to read people and an unwavering sense of justice. To those in need she was a woman of boundless compassion, courage and optimism, who had time for everyone. This exhibition has been curated to celebrate and to remember Mum Shirl's memory and many achievements.
She is revered amongst Aboriginal people as the Black Saint of Redfern.
Mum Shirl was a towering presence in Redfern. Not only because of her huge and commanding personality, ‘queenly’ confidence and physical presence. It was her energy and urgency of purpose in the service of people in need and the victims of injustice that defined her.
She was seemingly intimidated by no-one and demanded the same attention from prison super-intendents, bishops and politicians as she did from the numerous homeless children who lived under her roof. She never gave any indication that she cared about her own needs: she was always moving, always generous, always available to others.
Mum Shirl (Coleen Shirley Perry Smith), was born in 1921 at Erambie Mission near Cowra, New South Wales and lived there until her Grandfather was expelled from the mission when she was six. Because of her epilepsy, Shirley had no schooling…
[and] could not read or write, but would talk at length about how she was ‘schooled’ in Aboriginal culture, language and precious knowledge, which needed to be passed onto everyone who would listen…
She married young and moved to Kempsey to live with her husband’s family when she was pregnant but returned to Sydney as the local hospital was segregated. Though her daughter, Beatrice, and husband later returned to Kempsey, Shirley stayed and spent the remainder of her life in Sydney’s inner west, working mainly in Redfern, the hub of Aboriginal political activism.
She settled in Redfern and joined the Catholic church where she met the legendary Father Ted Kennedy. Together they ran the Sunday morning service and often Mum Shirl would stand and tell, in detail, of a family getting evicted or in desperate need of assistance. With the help she enlisted she often assisted all sorts of people and children, never discriminating between black or white…
Deeply immersed in the struggle for equal rights for Aboriginal people, Mum Shirl met regularly with young leaders and activists…She assisted the Police to settle disputes among families and groups and to calm down situations which could end in violence. Calls for help often came in the middle of the night and she was in such demand that she was put under great stress. Her work in the jails saw her involved in The Royal Commission into Prisons and later The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Mum Shirl was given a State Funeral at St Mary's Cathedral in 1998. In November 1999, a year after her death and on the 78th anniversary of her birthday, an ordinary seat outside St Vincent’s church in Redfern Street, Redfern, was installed under a plaque on the church façade. The engraved-metal portrait of her has a text that reads: ‘In celebration of the life of Mum Shirl, the black saint of Redfern who gave aid and comfort to all who asked’.
Today her spirit lives on in Redfern as brightly as it did during her lifetime and will do so for as long as the Aboriginal struggle for justice prevails. A woman of magisterial presence and influence, Shirley was, in her time, the most famous and well-known Indigenous figure in the inner-city. Her generosity and influence touched people, regardless of race, in Sydney, across New South Wales and throughout Australia.

 

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Mum Shirl by Gordon Syron
Mum Shirl - 2000
Gordon Syron 25

183.0 x 270.0 cm
#17685 LOCATION: Offsite AUS
$60,000.00

Your Move II by Gordon Syron
Your Move II - 2014
Gordon Syron 25

150 x 100 cm
#17684 LOCATION: Bondi Beach
$12,500.00

Bend in the River by Gordon Syron
Bend in the River - 19972004
Gordon Syron 25

93 x 68 cm
#17704
$N/A

Boat People by Gordon Syron
Boat People - 2013
Gordon Syron 25

40 x 40 cm
#11349
SOLD

The Massacre - Clearing The Land of Flora and Fauna by Gordon Syron
The Massacre - Clearing The Land of Flora and Fauna - 1998
Gordon Syron 25

133 x 88 cm
#17682
$N/A

And They Never Ask Us For Our Land by Gordon Syron
And They Never Ask Us For Our Land - 2011
Gordon Syron 25

50x30 cm
#10108 LOCATION: Bondi Beach
$3,500.00

I Won't Do Your Dirty Deeds by Elaine Pelot-Syron
I Won't Do Your Dirty Deeds - 1981
Elaine Pelot-Syron 8

140 x 99.5 cm
#17680 LOCATION: Offsite AUS
$3,500.00

A Portrait of Mum Shirl at the Aboriginal Legal Service Opening by Elaine Pelot-Syron
A Portrait of Mum Shirl at the Aboriginal Legal Service Opening - 1984
Elaine Pelot-Syron 8

127 x 102 cm
#17681 LOCATION: Offsite AUS
$2,750.00

The Dreaming Man of Redfern by Gordon Syron
The Dreaming Man of Redfern - 2015
Gordon Syron 25

56 x 76cm
#14033 LOCATION: Bondi Beach
$2,500.00

Balance of Power by Gordon Syron
Balance of Power - 1998
Gordon Syron 25

44 x 60 cm
#17683 LOCATION: Bondi Beach
$2,200.00

David Gulpilil / by Gordon Syron
David Gulpilil / - 1988
Gordon Syron 25

140.0 x 94.0 cm
#17706 LOCATION: Offsite AUS
$2,000.00

Invasion Day by Gordon Syron
Invasion Day - 2013
Gordon Syron 25

60 x 60cm
#11350
$N/A

Untitled (Red Coat)  by Gordon Syron
Untitled (Red Coat) - 2013
Gordon Syron 25

60 x 60cm
#11351
$N/A

Leading the March by Elaine Pelot-Syron
Leading the March - 1990
Elaine Pelot-Syron 8

83 x 59 x 59.0 cm
#17677 LOCATION: Offsite AUS
$1,800.00

Judgement by his Peers   / by Gordon Syron
Judgement by his Peers / - 2017
Gordon Syron 25

108 x 82 cm
#17705 LOCATION: Bondi Beach
$1,700.00

Where the Wildflowers Once Grew by Gordon Syron
Where the Wildflowers Once Grew - 2015
Gordon Syron 25

51 x 41cm
#14030 LOCATION: Bondi Beach
$1,500.00

Where the Wildflowers Once Grew by Gordon Syron
Where the Wildflowers Once Grew - 2015
Gordon Syron 25

51 x 41cm
#14030 LOCATION: Bondi Beach
$1,500.00

Phillip by Gordon Syron
Phillip - 2012
Gordon Syron 25

51 x 41 cm
#11346 LOCATION: Bondi Beach
$1,400.00

The Kids on Cavendish Street by Elaine Pelot-Syron
The Kids on Cavendish Street - 1983
Elaine Pelot-Syron 8

150.0 x 32.0 cm
#17686 LOCATION: Offsite AUS
$1,400.00

Meeting on Redfern Street by Elaine Pelot-Syron
Meeting on Redfern Street - 1980
Elaine Pelot-Syron 8

150.0 x 48.0 cm
#17687
SOLD

The Waratah Fairies by Gordon Syron
The Waratah Fairies - 2007
Gordon Syron 25

61 x 46 cm
#9337 LOCATION: Bondi Beach
$1,400.00

The Poisoning of the Waterholes of Australia by Gordon Syron
The Poisoning of the Waterholes of Australia - 2008
Gordon Syron 25

30 x 41 cm
#11229 LOCATION: Bondi Beach
$1,200.00

Black Saint of Redfern by Elaine Pelot-Syron
Black Saint of Redfern - 1981
Elaine Pelot-Syron 8

45 x 57 cm
#17676 LOCATION: Offsite AUS
$1,200.00

The Red Coats Are Coming by Gordon Syron
The Red Coats Are Coming - 2009
Gordon Syron 25

19.0 x 27.0 cm
#9375 LOCATION: Bondi Beach
$1,200.00

Land Rights at Town Hall by Elaine Pelot-Syron
Land Rights at Town Hall
Elaine Pelot-Syron 8

40 x 26 cm
#17678 LOCATION: Offsite AUS
$750.00

Mum Shirl and Joe Croft by Elaine Pelot-Syron
Mum Shirl and Joe Croft
Elaine Pelot-Syron 8

64 x 45 cm
#17707 LOCATION: Offsite AUS
$750.00

Australian’s for Riffles and Grenades 1918 in France by Gordon Syron
Australian’s for Riffles and Grenades 1918 in France - 2010
Gordon Syron 25

26 x 26 cm
#11228 LOCATION: Bondi Beach
$600.00

This Is My Biggest Fight Ever Against Drugs and Alcohol' Poster by Elaine Pelot-Syron
This Is My Biggest Fight Ever Against Drugs and Alcohol' Poster
Elaine Pelot-Syron 8

60.0 x 41.0 cm
#17710 LOCATION: Offsite AUS
$350.00


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