AustLit

Nell Harris was born into a working class family in southern Sydney. Always a top student, she trained as a teacher and in 1926 was sent to the small town of Wee Waa in northwest N. S. W. where she met farmer Dick Harris. By 1929 Dick was working at the Anglican mission, Oenpelli, in Arnhem Land. Nell joined him there in 1933. She proved to be a person of remarkable strength, humour, energy, courage, and good will. She had five children, raising some of them away from any medical support with, in the early years, only two external supplies of food a year. During this time, she taught Aboriginal children and adults and, at the end of 1941, along with other non-Aboriginal women, she left N. T. during the war. Between 1944 and 1965 she worked at various N.T. missions. Her deep Christian commitment was revealed in her finding all people interesting and equally valuable. A raconteur, Nell told hundreds of stories of her life which have been compiled, using her own words, into a biography.