At 84 years old, Aunty Ruth Simms still wakes up each morning and heads to school. The Yuin woman has spent the past half-century teaching students across the Illawarra region of New South Wales and is now recognised as the longest-serving Aboriginal education officer in the NSW Department of Education — a milestone that speaks to an extraordinary life devoted to community and learning.
Roots in La Perouse: A childhood shaped by culture and Country
Aunty Ruth was born and raised on La Perouse Reserve in Sydney's south, on Gamay and Dharawal Country. Her memories of growing up there are vivid and warm — tin shacks dotted along the coastline, swimming in the saltwater, and the rituals that bound families together along the shoreline.
She recalls the community bonfire tradition, where families would spend weeks gathering branches and cutting down trees, dragging them down to the reserve and lighting enormous fires at dusk. "It was always a competition between the families, who could make the biggest bonfire," she says. Afterwards, her mother would cook potatoes in the hot ash for the children, and the family would feast together under the stars.
The men of the reserve were skilled fishers who could read the water with precision. "When the mullet run around the cove, depending on how big the dark shadow was, they could pick how many baskets of fish were in that haul — they could tell by the ripples in the water," she recalls.
Aunty Ruth describes her parents as her "first teachers." Her mother, whom she remembers as a deeply cultural woman, would gather tea tree foliage from the bush and teach her children how to weave the leaves into the head of a broom, while her brother carved a wooden handle. "We didn't have money to buy much. We didn't have $20 for a broom, so she taught us how to make one," Aunty Ruth says.
From La Perouse Public School to a lifelong calling
Aunty Ruth began her formal schooling at La Perouse Public School in the 1940s, where she discovered a deep and enduring love of learning. The words spoken to her at her graduation at 19 have stayed with her ever since. "The chancellor of Sydney University said that you can have a comma, you can have a semicolon, but you'll never have a full stop in learning. I still believe that."
When a teaching position opened up on Yuin Country at Nowra Public School, she took the opportunity. "I went for it, I was fortunate to get the position, and I've been in that position ever since," she says. Aunty Ruth was among the first cohort of Aboriginal teacher aides in NSW — a role now formally known as Aboriginal Education Officer.
She still holds the original document listing all 62 names in that inaugural group. "I still have the piece of paper with all 62 of our names printed out. I was so proud," she says.
Fifty years of making a difference across the Illawarra
The role of Aboriginal Education Officer was created to strengthen the relationship between schools and Aboriginal families, support student learning, provide cultural role models, and give communities a genuine voice in their children's education. It is a purpose Aunty Ruth has embodied for five decades across Nowra Public School, Culburra Public School and Nowra East Public School.
Among her proudest achievements was running a homework centre at Nowra Public School that was recognised as the best in the district. Her work has touched thousands of children across generations of Illawarra families.
Her story reflects a broader truth about the essential role of First Nations voices in Australian education — a perspective explored further in our coverage of how First Nations wisdom offers a different way of understanding Australia's identity and culture.
For Aunty Ruth Simms, the full stop has never come — and by all signs, it is not coming any time soon.
