Sugar Bird Lady

The release · Kerri Perrett

Behind the song

“Sugar Bird Lady” is an Australian bush ballad inspired by the remarkable life of Robin Miller. Co-written with my brother Dean Perrett, the ballad is a tribute to a woman who turned the impossible into action, combining her love for flying with nursing, to deliver life-saving polio vaccines to remote Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley and Pilbara regions in the 1960s. To disguise the bitter taste Robin placed drops of the oral vaccine onto sugar cubes, in turn affectionately earning her the nickname “Sugar Bird Lady”. This song is a tribute to her courage, compassion and quiet determination and honours a woman whose selfless service touched thousands of lives. I hope “Sugar Bird Lady” helps keep Robin Miller’s extraordinary story flying for generations to come!