Miriam's mother was an Aranda woman from the Hermannsburg mission in the Northern Territory and her father came from Peshawar in Pakistan as a camel driver. Miriam and her two younger brothers travelled with their parents and the camel team, living at times in Oodnadatta, Marree and Port Augusta. The Afghans preferred their children not to learn Aboriginal ways, but Miriam was a 'stickybeak' and used to learn whatever she could from the Aboriginal people. She was educated to Grade 6 at Oodnadatta, but she and her brother often missed school and went to the sheepyards, where they played with the lambs. When she was nine her mother died, and Miriam's father looked after the children, taking them with him on his travels, cooking their food and making their clothes.
When Miriam left school she worked as a dressmaker. She was eighteen when she married her first husband, Gool Mahomed. They ran away together and were married by the Presbyterian minister at Beltana. Their first child was born at Beltana, and after losing their next two children they had a son, Dean. In about 1943 she married again, this time to Noor 'Lulla' Dadleh, at Marree. She was drinking a lot at the time or, she said, she wouldn't have married again ('Fair Devil Sticky Beak'). She lost another child, and had another four sons. She worked as a cook at the Marree hotel.
Dean grew up to be a 'wild' man, drinking and gambling, until one day, after being put in a cell to sleep off a binge, he was very ashamed, sorted out his life and became a regular church-goer. Inspired by this, Miriam also gave up drinking and smoking. After living at Marree for fifty years she moved to Port Augusta, where she spent her later years. Miriam enjoyed learning languages. She spoke Aranda and Luritja as well as her father's Afghan, and also understood several other Aboriginal languages.
