The Australian Women's Register

1 hour Miriam Tonkin, nee Brunning, was born in Melbourne, Victoria. She left school at 13 years of age to begin work. She was very active in the Eureka Youth League as a teenager and describes an intensive period working on the Communist Party’s Guardian newspaper. Miriam married in 1950 and she and her husband moved to Adelaide with their five young children in 1958. In the late 1960s Miriam became involved in the peace movement and Women’s Liberation. Her belief in women’s right to control their fertility led to her involvement in organisations including the Humanist Society, the Abortion Law Reform Association and the Friends of the Pregnancy Advisory Centre. She also speaks about the current status of the abortion reform campaign. Miriam qualified as a kindergarten teacher in the mid 1970s and became active in her union and in education reform as well.