Oodgeroo of the Noonuccal Tribe

Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920–1993), formerly Kath Walker, was a Quandamooka woman, activist, poet, writer and educator. Born in Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) in Queensland, she enlisted in the Australian Women's Army Service in 1942 before beginning her career in political activism. In the 1940s she was a member of the Communist Party of Australia, which opposed racial discrimination. She became Queensland State Secretary of the Federal Council for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advancement in 1961, and campaigned successfully for amendments to Sections 51(xxvi) and 127 of the Constitution in 1967. In the 1970s she chaired a number of bodies set up to promote Indigenous interests, including the Queensland Aboriginal Advancement League. Throughout her life, she aimed to promote cultural pride among Aboriginal people through her writing, which she described as 'sloganistic, civil rightish, plain and simple'. Her first book of poetry, We are Going, published in 1964, was the first poetry publication by an Aboriginal person. Noonuccal returned to Minjerribah in 1971 where she taught Aboriginal culture to thousands of school children, and published two children's books: Stradbroke Dreamtime (1972) and Father Sky and Mother Earth (1981). Having gained world acclaim for her writing and advocacy (for which she was also conferred with four honorary doctorates), she published her last collection of poems, Kath Walker in China, in 1988. That year, she reassumed her tribal name in protest at the Bicentennial celebrations, and returned the MBE she had been awarded in 1970.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010
© George Fetting/Copyright Agency, 2021