Oodgeroo Noonuccal, traditional name-form adopted by Kath Walker Biography

part-Aboriginal poet and writer, of the Noonuccal tribe of Stradbroke Island, near Brisbane. Formally educated only to primary level, she worked as a domestic servant from the age of 13, racist regulations barring her from the nursing profession. Her first volume of verse, We Are Going (1964), established both her talent and her committed stance and was followed by The Dawn Is at Hand (1966); these works were collected in My People: A Kath Walker Collection (1970) together with new poems and prose. Kath Walker in China (1988), a further collection of verse, affirmed her belief in the power of people to effect positive change. Stradbroke Dreamtime (1972) explored traditional stories from Aboriginal folklore. Legends and Landscapes (1990) was also a collection of Aboriginal stories, each located in its area of origin by maps and photographs, and organized by tribal groups. Writing was always part of Walker's long and distinguished campaign for Aboriginal rights. Overall her work, and life, was a passionate and articulate expression of wrongs inflicted upon Australian Aboriginal people and of the Aboriginal's indomitable will not only to survive but to flourish.