Oodgeroo Noonuccal Explained

Oodgeroo Noonuccal
(Kath Walker)
Birth Name:Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska
Birth Date:1920 11, df=yes
Birth Place:Minjerribah, Queensland, Australia
Death Place:Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Nationality:Australian
Other Names:Kath Walker, Kathleen Ruska
Known For:Poetry, acting, writing, Aboriginal rights activism
Education:Bookkeeping, typing, shorthand
Employer:Australian Women's Army Service, Noonuccal-Nughie Education Cultural Centre
Occupation:Army officer, writer, teacher, poet
Party:Communist Party of Australia
Australian Labor Party
Australian Democrats
Boards:Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI)
Spouse:Bruce Walker
Children:Denis Walker
Vivian Walker
Parents:Ted and Lucy Ruska
Footnotes:

Oodgeroo Noonuccal (; born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska, later Kath Walker (3 November 192016 September 1993) was an Aboriginal Australian political activist, artist and educator, who campaigned for Aboriginal rights.[1] Noonuccal was best known for her poetry, and was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse.[2]

Life as a poet, artist, writer and activist

Oodgeroo Noonuccal joined the Australian Women's Army Service in 1942, after her two brothers were captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore. Serving as a signaller in Brisbane she met many black American soldiers, as well as European Australians. These contacts helped to lay the foundations for her later advocacy of Aboriginal rights.[3] During the 1940s, she joined the Communist Party of Australia because it was the only party which opposed the White Australia policy.[4] [5]

During the 1960s Walker emerged as a prominent political activist and writer. She was Queensland state secretary of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI),[6] and was involved in a number of other political organisations. She was a key figure in the campaign for the reform of the Australian constitution to allow Aboriginal people full citizenship, lobbying Prime Minister Robert Menzies in 1965, and his successor Harold Holt in 1966.[7] At one deputation in 1963, she taught Robert Menzies a lesson in the realities of Aboriginal life. After the Prime Minister offered the deputation an alcoholic drink, he was startled to learn from her that in Queensland he could be jailed for this.[8]

She wrote many books, beginning with We Are Going (1964), the first book to be published by an Aboriginal woman.[9] The title poem concludes:

The scrubs are gone, the hunting and the laughter.The eagle is gone, the emu and the kangaroo are gone from this place.The bora ring is gone.The corroboree is gone.And we are going.

This first book of poetry was extraordinarily successful, selling out in several editions, and setting Oodgeroo well on the way to be Australia's highest-selling poet alongside C. J. Dennis.[10] Critics' responses were mixed, with some questioning whether Oodgeroo, as an Aboriginal person, could really have written it herself. Others were disturbed by the activism of the poems, and found that they were "propaganda" rather than what they considered to be real poetry.[11] Oodgeroo embraced the idea of her poetry as propaganda, and described her own style as "sloganistic, civil-writerish, plain and simple."[12] She wanted to convey pride in her Aboriginality to the broadest possible audience, and to popularise equality and Aboriginal rights through her writing.[13]

Walker was inaugural president of the committee of the Aboriginal Publications Foundation, which published the magazine Identity in the 1970s.[14]

In 1972 she bought a property on North Stradbroke Island (also known as Minjerribah) which she called Moongalba ("sitting-down place"), and established the Noonuccal-Nughie Education and Cultural Centre.[1] And in 1977, a documentary about her, called Shadow Sister, was released. It was directed and produced by Frank Heimans and photographed by Geoff Burton. It describes her return to Moongalba and her life there.[15] In a 1987 interview, she described her education program at Moongalba, saying that over "the last seventeen years I've had 26,500 children on the island. White kids as well as black. And if there were green ones, I'd like them too ... I'm colour blind, you see. I teach them about Aboriginal culture. I teach them about the balance of nature."[16] Oodgeroo was committed to education at all levels, and collaborated with universities in creating programs for teacher education that would lead to better teaching in Australian schools.[17]

On 13 June 1970, Noonuccal (as Kathleen Jean Mary Walker) received the award of Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) (MBE) for her services to the community.[18]

In 1974 Noonuccal was aboard a British Airways flight that was hijacked by terrorists campaigning for Palestinian liberation. The hijackers shot a crew member and a passenger and forced the plane to fly to several different African destinations. During her three days in captivity, she used a blunt pencil and an airline sickbag from the seat pocket to write two poems, "Commonplace" and "Yusuf (Hijacker)".[19] [20] [21]

In 1983, Noonuccal announced she would stand as an independent candidate for the Senate in Queensland at the 1983 federal election. She unsuccessfully attempted to recruit Senator Neville Bonner to join her on a pro-Aboriginal ticket, following his resignation from the Liberal Party. She subsequently withdrew her candidacy, stating she and Bonner were likely to split the vote.[22] [23] Later in the year Noonuccal ran in the 1983 Queensland state election for the Australian Democrats political party in the seat of Redlands. Her campaign focused around policies promoting the environment and Aboriginal rights.[24] Receiving 6.4% of the primary vote, she was not elected.

In 1986 she played the part of Eva in Bruce Beresford's film, The Fringe Dwellers.[25]

In December 1987, she announced she would return her MBE in protest over the Australian Government's intention to celebrate the Australian Bicentenary which she described as "200 years of sheer unadulterated humiliation" of Aboriginal people. She also announced she would change her name to Oodgeroo Noonuccal, with Oodgeroo meaning "paperbark tree" and Noonuccal (also spelt Nunukul) being her people's name.[26] [27]

Personal life and family

Noonuccal was born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska on 3 November 1920 on North Stradbroke Island. She attended Dunwich State School and then became a domestic servant.[28]

On 8 May 1943 she married childhood friend and Brisbane waterside worker Bruce Walker at the Methodist Church, West End, Brisbane. The couple had one son Denis, but they later separated.[29]

She worked for Raphael and Phyllis Cilento and had a second son, Vivian Charles Walker, with the Cilentos' son Raphael junior, born in Brisbane in 1953. In 1970 Vivian won the first Aboriginal scholarship to attend the National Institute of Dramatic Art, and worked in the performing and visual arts. He lived and worked abroad for many years before returning to Australia, where his talent was fostered by the Aboriginal National Theatre Trust, which was established in 1988.[30] In 1988 he adopted the Indigenous name Kabul Oodgeroo Noonuccal,[31] kabul meaning carpet snake, and in the same year co-authored The Rainbow Serpent with his mother, for Expo 88. In March 1990 he directed the world premiere of Munjong, by Richard Walley, at the Victorian Arts Centre.[32] He died on 20 February 1991.[33] [34]

Oodgeroo Noonuccal died from cancer on 16 September 1993 at the Repatriation General Hospital at Greenslopes, Brisbane, aged 72 years and was buried at Moongalba on North Stradbroke Island.[35]

In culture

A play has been written by Sam Watson entitled Oodgeroo: Bloodline to Country, based on Oodgeroo Noonuccal's real-life experience as an Aboriginal woman on board a flight hijacked by Palestinian terrorists on her way home from a committee meeting in Nigeria for the World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture[36]

Noonuccal's poetry has been set to music by numerous composers, including Christopher Gordon, Clare Maclean, Stephen Leek, Andrew Ford, Paul Stanhope, Mary Mageau, and Joseph Twist.[37]

Recognition

Oodgeroo won several literary awards, including the Mary Gilmore Medal (1970), the Jessie Litchfield Award (1975),[38] and the FAW Patricia Weickhardt Award to an Aboriginal Writer (1985).[39] [40]

She received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Macquarie University for her contribution to Australian literature in 1988.[41] [42] She was also made an honorary Doctor of the University by Griffith University in 1989,[43] and was awarded a further honorary Doctor of Letters degree in 1991 by Monash University.[44] In 1992, Oodgeroo Noonuccal received an honorary Doctorate from the Faculty of Education Queensland University of Technology for both her contribution to literature and in recognition of her work in the field of education.

In 1979, she was awarded the Sixth Annual Oscar at the Micheaux Awards Ceremony, hosted by the US Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and in the same year received the International Acting Award for the film Shadow Sisters.[45]

She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1970, but returned the award in 1987 in protest at the Australian Bicentenary celebrations in order to make a political statement about the condition of her people.[27] [1]

In 1985, she was named Aboriginal of the Year, by the National Aborigines Day Observance Committee (NADOC, now NAIDOC), an honour bestowed by Indigenous people.[46]

In 1991, the commemorative plaque with her name on it was one of the first installed on Sydney Writers Walk.[47]

In 1992 Queensland University of Technology (QUT) awarded her an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Education recognising her contributions to literature and education. In 2006 the university renamed their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Support Unit as the Oodgeroo Unit in her honour. The university also has the Oodgeroo Scholarship Program which provides undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.[48]

In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, she was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for her role as an "Influential Artist".

In 2016 the Queensland Poetry Festival introduced an Indigenous program which included the inaugural Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize.[49]

The electoral district of Oodgeroo created in the 2017 Queensland state electoral redistribution was named after her.[50]

Bibliography

Poetry

For children

Non fiction

References

Secondary sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Land . Clare . Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920–1993) . Australian Women's Archives Project . 16 September 2013 . 23 February 2016 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20160304133319/http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/IMP0082b.htm . 4 March 2016 . dmy-all .
  2. "Oodgeroo Noonuccal." Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement, Vol. 27. Gale, 2007
  3. Web site: Indigenous defence service - The Australian War Memorial. www.awm.gov.au. 5 March 2018. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20180303050747/https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/indigenous. 3 March 2018. dmy-all.
  4. Book: Abbey . Sue . Noonuccal, Oodgeroo (1920–1993) . National Centre of Biography, Australian National University . 13 May 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190513033832/http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/noonuccal-oodgeroo-18057 . 13 May 2019 . live .
  5. News: Obituary: OODGEROO NOONUCCAL (Kath Walker) A tireless fighter for land and civil rights. 17 September 1993. The Canberra Times. 6 November 2019. 21,339. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 68. 4. National Library of Australia.
  6. Cochrane, (1994), p. 67; Elaine Darling, They spoke out pretty good: politics and gender in the Brisbane Aboriginal Rights Movement 1958–1962 (St Kilda, Vic.: Janoan Media Exchange, c1998.), p. 189.
  7. Cochrane, (1994), p. 63.
  8. Web site: Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath (Ruska) Walker) . Reconciliation Australia . 5 April 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120405230555/http://www.reconciliation.org.au/home/resources/school-resources/1967-referendum/women--1967-referendum/oodgeroo-noonuccal . 20 May 2016.
  9. Book: Maori and Aboriginal Women in the Public Eye: Representing Difference, 1950-2000 . ANU E Press . 23 February 2014 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20150223024843/https://books.google.com.au/books?id=qikX50RKgPgC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=first+book+to+be+published+by+an+aboriginal+woman&source=bl&ots=D9cRwtJXMr&sig=gmG7XHOtc5GPv7FQQ1IP5YFdpUY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=eW7qVN6wOKahmgXS1YKICA&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=first%20book%20to%20be%20published%20by%20an%20aboriginal%20woman&f=false . 23 February 2015 . dmy-all . 9781921862625 . December 2011 .
  10. Mitchell, (1987), pp. 200–2.
  11. Rooney, Brigid, Literary activists: writer-intellectuals and Australian public life (St Lucia, Qld.) : University of Queensland Press, 2009, pp. 68–9
  12. Kath Walker, "Aboriginal Literature" Identity 2.3 (1975) pp. 39–40
  13. Cochrane, (1994), p. 37
  14. Web site: Records of the Aboriginal Publications Foundation: MS3781 . AIATSIS Library. 29 September 2022.
  15. Web site: Shadow Sister: A Film Biography of Aboriginal Poet Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal), MBE. 14 March 2017. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20080719061014/http://www.frontrowvideo.com.au/details/f0031.html. 19 July 2008. dmy-all.
  16. Mitchell, (1987), p. 206.
  17. Rhonda Craven, "The role of teachers in the Year of Indigenous people: Oodgeroo of the Tribe Noonuccal (Kath Walker)", Aboriginal Studies Association Journal, No. 3 (1994), p. 55-56.
  18. Web site: Mrs Kathleen Jean Mary Walker. It's An Honour. Australian Government. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20191106001354/https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1088318. 2019-11-06. 2019-11-06.
  19. Web site: Marg . Powell . Jeff . Rickertt . Kath Walker - Sick Bag Poem - Treasures from the Fryer Library . Library.uq.edu.au . 12 January 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120331103922/http://www.library.uq.edu.au/fryer/treasures/yusuf/yusuf.html . 31 March 2012 .
  20. News: WORLD NEWS. 27 November 1974. The Canberra Times. 6 November 2019. 13,923. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 49. 6. National Library of Australia.
  21. News: AUSTRALIAN HOSTAGES Hijackers free 17 from British jet. 25 November 1974. The Canberra Times. 6 November 2019. 13,921. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 49. 1. National Library of Australia.
  22. News: It's politics as usual for Independent Bonner. The Canberra Times. 13 February 1983.
  23. News: Kath Walker withdraws. The Canberra Times. 15 February 1983.
  24. Floyd, B., Inside Story, p. 71, Boolarong Press, Salisbury.
  25. Web site: The Fringe Dwellers. australianscreen. en. 2019-12-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20160306192436/http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/fringe-dwellers/clip3/. 6 March 2016. live.
  26. News: Aboriginal poet will return MBE. 16 December 1987. The Canberra Times. 6 November 2019. 19,065. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 62. 3. National Library of Australia.
  27. Web site: Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement: Supplement (Mi-So): Oodgeroo Noonuccal Biography . Notable Biographies . 23 February 2016 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20160227075656/http://www.notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplement-Mi-So/Noonuccal-Oodgeroo.html . 27 February 2016 . dmy-all .
  28. Web site: Oodgeroo Noonuccal. 20 May 2019. AustLit. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20191106004743/https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A12345. 2019-11-06. 2019-11-06.
  29. Web site: Marriage registration: Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska. Family history research. Queensland Government. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20191106004049/https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au/details/52d32ded920b2b47bff43874233018ed8bcd1b2bc69a1e3cdb527034748de5f7. 6 November 2019. 6 November 2019.
  30. Web site: Brenda L. Croft. Croft, Brenda. https://web.archive.org/web/20211203143550/https:/nga.gov.au/Exhibition/RILEY/Default.cfm?MnuID=4 . Michael Riley: Sights Unseen. 3 December 2021 . 2006. Exhibition, with extensive biographical notes..
  31. Web site: Oodgeroo Noonuccal. https://web.archive.org/web/20140202170015/http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/noonuccal-oodgeroo/. 2 February 2014. Australian Poetry Library. University of Sydney.
  32. Web site: Aboriginal National Theatre Trust Limited - records, 1902-1991 [Catalogue record] ]. State Library of New South Wales. Old Catalogue. 8 August 2022.
  33. Web site: Kabul Oodgeroo Noonuccal, 1953- . Fryer Library Manuscripts . 19 February 2020 . 8 August 2022.
  34. Web site: Kabul Oodgeroo Noonuccal . . 23 July 2014 . 8 August 2022.
  35. News: Passing of Oodgeroo of The Tribe Noonuccul. 1 October 1993. Torres News. 6 November 2019. 51. Queensland, Australia. 20. National Library of Australia.
  36. Web site: Oodgeroo - Bloodline To Country . AustralianPlays.org . 12 January 2012 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20120330034905/http://australianplays.org/script/PL-55 . 30 March 2012 . dmy-all .
  37. Web site: Oodgeroo Noonuccal : Australian Music Centre. 14 March 2017. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20170314154418/http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/noonuccal-oodgeroo. 14 March 2017. dmy-all.
  38. Web site: Oodgeroo Noonuccal story. Queensland University of Technology. en. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20191106010925/https://www.qut.edu.au/about/oodgeroo/oodgeroo-noonuccal. 2019-11-06. 2019-11-06.
  39. Web site: FAW Patricia Weickhardt Award to an Aboriginal Writer . . 7 November 2023.
  40. Web site: 100 great Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders you really ought to know . Central News . 14 October 2023 . 7 November 2023.
  41. Web site: Australian Poetry Library . Noonuccal, Oodgeroo . www.poetrylibrary.edu.au . University of Sydney and the Copyright Agency Limited . 6 April 2021 . 26 February 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200226223853/https://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/noonuccal-oodgeroo . dead .
  42. Web site: Macquarie University . Macquarie University . Honorary doctorates: Previous honoris causa recipients . MQU Students . 6 April 2021 . Sydney . en.
  43. Web site: Griffith University . Griffith University . Award of Doctor of the University . Griffith Archive . 6 April 2021 . Nathan, Queensland . (In 1977, the Griffith Council resolved to change the name of the degree to Doctor of the University) . 27 February 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200227221511/https://griffitharchive.griffith.edu.au/items/doctors-university/ . dead .
  44. Web site: Monash University . Monash University . Roll of Honorary Graduates: Oodgeroo of the Tribe Noonuccal . Your alumni community . 6 April 2021 . Clayton, Victoria . en.
  45. Book: Who's Who of Australian Women. 1982. Methuen Australia Pty Ltd. 0454004370.
  46. Web site: National NAIDOC Awards: Winner profiles . www.naidoc.org.au . Commonwealth of Australia . 6 April 2021 . en . Person of the Year Award; Note: In 1985, this award was known as "Aboriginal of the Year". . 2021 . At the end of every NAIDOC Week, the National NAIDOC Awards are announced at a ceremony and ball event in the national focus city.
  47. Web site: PREMIER UNVEILS QUEENSLAND'S 150 ICONS. Bligh. Anna. Anna Bligh. 10 June 2009. Queensland Government. https://web.archive.org/web/20170524033717/http://statements.qld.gov.au/statement/id/64301. 24 May 2017. 24 May 2017.
  48. Web site: Oodgeroo Noonuccal Postgraduate and Undergraduate Scholarships. Queensland University of Technology. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20191106011655/https://cms.qut.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/695407/oodgeroo-noonuccal-undergraduate-and-postgraduate-scholarship-applicant-guide.pdf. 6 November 2019. 6 November 2019.
  49. Web site: Queensland Poetry Festival. ATSICHS. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20170215010948/http://atsichsbrisbane.org.au/2016/07/15/queensland-poetry-festival/. 15 February 2017. 24 August 2017. dmy-all.
  50. Web site: Determination of Queensland's Legislative Assembly Electoral Districts. Queensland Redistribution Commission. 26 May 2017. Queensland Government Gazette. 177. https://web.archive.org/web/20171029095929/http://ecq.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/70956/26.5.17_Extraordinary-Gazette_QRC-Final-Determination.pdf. 29 October 2017. dead. 29 October 2017.

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