Meitka Gruszka was born in Poland just before the outbreak of World War 2. As a baby, she was transported with her mother to the USSR where her mother worked in a Siberian forced labour camp. After the was, she and her mother travelled as refugees to Iran and then East Africa. They arrived in Western Australia in 1950.

She completed her education here and became a primary school teacher, working for fifteen years in both the state and catholic school systems. She furthered her education by completing a Bachelor of Education, specialising in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). In 1979 she was employed by the Catholic Education Office in the area of ESL and Multicultural Education.

Sources used to compile this entry: Papers of Meitka Gruszka, 1980 - 2003 [manuscript], 1980 - 2003, MN 1801; Migrant Communities Archive; Gruszka, Meitka (c. 1938 - ); JS Battye Library of West Australian History, State Library of Western Australia.