Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920-1993), formerly known as Kath Walker, was an Australian Aboriginal poet and an outspoken activist for Aboriginal rights. Her writing is notable for its plain-speaking style and its focus on Aboriginal themes. Her first book of poetry, We Are Going (1964), was the first book by an Australian Aboriginal woman to be published. It was an immediate commercial success. The book deals with the condition of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia and with racism in Australian society. In 1988, Kath Walker adopted the Aboriginal name Oodgeroo Noonuccal.
Oodgeroo Noonuccal was born as Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska on Nov. 3, 1920, on North Stradbroke Island, in the Australian state of Queensland. She was a member of the Noonuccal Aboriginal people. The Noonuccal are one of the Quandamooka peoples, a group of Aboriginal peoples with traditional lands on North Stradbroke Island. Oodgeroo’s mother, Lucy McCullough, was part of the Stolen Generations, Indigenous (native) children taken from their families by settler governments in Australia. The governments aimed to force Western culture upon the Indigenous children, including both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Oodgeroo left school at the age of 13 to work as a domestic servant. In 1942, she enlisted in the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS). Later that year, she married Bruce Walker, a member of the Gugingin Aboriginal people. She left the AWAS in 1944.
In the 1940’s, Oodgeroo began working as a political activist. After joining the Communist Party of Australia, she became a speechwriter and public speaker. She opposed discriminatory laws, collectively known as the White Australia policy, that restricted non-European immigration to Australia. In the 1960’s, Oodgeroo served on the Federal Council for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advancement. In addition, she worked on a successful campaign to amend the Australian Constitution. In a 1967 nationwide referendum (public vote on the issue), Australians approved changing the Constitution to include Indigenous peoples in government censuses, and to allow the federal government to pass laws regarding Indigenous peoples.
In 1970, Oodgeroo was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. However, she returned the award in 1988 to protest bicentennial celebrations of the British colonization of Australia. The colonization began in 1788. Also in 1988, as part of her protest, she adopted the name Oodgeroo Noonuccal. She combined the name of her people with an Aboriginal word meaning paperbark tree, which reflected her work as a writer.
Oodgeroo became an important literary figure in Australia after We Are Going was published in 1964. Another collection of Oodgeroo’s poems, The Dream Is at Hand, was published in 1966. My People: A Kath Walker Collection (1970) contains poems from Oodgeroo’s earlier books. Later editions of My People, published in 1981 and 1990, also included Oodgeroo’s speeches and essays. Many of Oodgeroo’s poems about the experiences of Aboriginal Australians were labeled as “protest poetry.”
Oodgeroo wrote several books for young readers. For example, Stradbroke Dreamtime (1972) includes autobiographical stories and Aboriginal folk tales. Oodgeroo’s other collections of legends include Father Sky and Mother Earth (1981); The Rainbow Serpent (1988), a retelling of the Aboriginal creation myth; Legends of Our Land (1990); and Australia’s Unwritten History: More Legends of Our Land (1992). Her final book of poetry, Kath Walker in China (1988), was inspired by a visit to China in 1984.
Oodgeroo devoted much of her later life to various causes, including education and environmentalism. She died on Sept. 16, 1993.
