AustLit

Essie Coffey lived for many years at 'Dodge City', an Aboriginal settlement on the outskirts of Brewarrina, New South Wales. Here Coffey was known as the 'Bush Queen', and she helped establish a number of Indigenous organisations despite never learning to read or write. Her father, Donald Shillingsworth, aka Goodjebah, was a tribal elder of the Murrawarri people. Her husband, Albert 'Doc' Coffey, came from Brewarrina Mission. She was nominated for an MBE but refused it, explaining "I knocked the MBE back because I'm not a member of the British Empire".