The Life Story of Annette Kellerman
The girl who stood courageously and changed the unjust laws of her time
Aydin Areta

The story of Annette Kellerman, written for children, is one that my daughter chose from the library and that we recently borrowed and read together. It is the story of the courage of an Australian woman who:

- was born in 1886 (138 years ago) into a music-loving family in the neighbourhood where I worked for years when I lived in Sydney;

- at the age of six, despite loving dance, lost most of her ability to walk because of polio;

- with her father’s help, learned to swim and to learn and practise dancing in water;

- despite those limitations, persevered so much in swimming that she gradually needed her metal leg brace less and less, became a swimming champion, and defeated not only Australia’s female swimmers but male swimmers as well;

- achieved all of this while, in addition to the problems with her legs, suffering from the compulsory clothing imposed on women swimmers of that period;

- at the time, women not only in Australia, England and the United States but across much of the Western world were required to swim in fully covering clothing, skirts, hats and heavy undergarments. Despite the restrictions imposed by these clothes, Annette defeated men who were able to swim in minimal and much lighter swimwear.

Continued ... 👇🏻