The homeland of the Noonuccal people is Minjerribah, (Island in the Sun), but now known as North Stradbroke Island. The island with South Stradbroke and Moreton Island act as a barrier to Moreton Bay (Quandamooka) or 'Islands in the Bay'. The Noonuccal were neighbours to other tribes in the bay, who lived on different islands or in different parts of the region – the Ngugi who lived on Moreton Island, and the Goenpul people who lived on the southern part of North Stradbroke, and the northern part of South Stradbroke Islands. The Noonuccal also lived in the Northeast region of the Brisbane River, where their neighbouring tribes were the Bundjalung, Barunggam, Waka Waka, and Gubbi Gubbi peoples.
Oodgeroo Noonuccal was the most eminent orator, poet, storyteller, author and activist from the Noonuccal people. She was best known for her poetry, and was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse, We Are Going in 1964.
Collection of essays and reminiscences, reflecting on all aspects of Oodgeroos career, from the poet and visual artist to the Aboriginal spokesperson, performer, activist, and educator. Includes photographs, examples of her visual art, and a bibliographical checklist compiled by Janine Little.
(...more)Warning: this video contains images of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
In this short film Oodgeroo Noonuccal recites and talks about her poem The Dispossessed. This poem was published in We Are Going : Poems, Oodgeroo Noonuccal's first published collection of poems.
This is the first collection of poems by Oodgeroo Noonuccal (originally published as Kath Walker).
(...more)'Through her poems, Kath Walker communicates the frustrations of Aborigines in the white world; her poems are brilliant and original.' (Source: GoodReads website)
(...more)'Oodgeroo's writing is often a provocative and passionate plea for justice. My People is a collection of poetry and prose and a reminder of Oodgeroo's contribution to indigenous culture and the journey to reconciliation.' (Source: Reading Australia website)
(...more)The work My People : A Kath Walker Collection includes all poems from Oodgeroo's previous two collections, We Are Going and The Dawn Is at Hand, plus a number of new pieces in the second and third editions.
Lisa Bellear was a poet, writer, visual artist, academic and social commentator who was actively involved in Indigenous affairs throughout Australia.
Bellear wrote Dreaming In Urban Areas published by UQP in 1996, a book of poetry which explores the experience of Aboriginal people in contemporary society. She said in an interview with Roberta Sykes that her 'poetry was not about
putting down white society. It's about self-discovery.'
Bellear's other poetry was published in journals and newspapers. In 2006, she was awarded the Deadly prize for making an outstanding contribution to literature
with her play The Dirty Mile: A History of Indigenous Fizroy, a suburb of
Melbourne
'These poems are anything but motionless. Their emotions cut, determined to map out another possibility, a place of personal and social reconciliation.' (Source: Back cover)
(...more)Tracey Bunda's family are the Wakka Wakka and the Goenpul people. Her career in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education began in 1986 at the Gippsland Institute in Victoria. She later became the convenor of the Weemala Centre, Australian Catholic University, the Director of the Wollotuka Centre at Newcastle University and the Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education at Ngunnalwal Centre at the University of Canberra. Associate Professor Bunda was appointed Director of the Yunggorendi First Nations Centre in Flinders University of South Australia in 2005.
First line of poem : "Oh! Sister can't you see?"
'...These legends are Australia's unwritten history, handed down by word of mouth through countless generations. They tell of the spirit beings, and the animals, plants and landscapes that they created..
'The legends in this book are told by Aborigines from widely different regions of Australia: Tasman, the Gold Coast area, and Stradbroke Island...' (Source: Back cover)
(...more)'We all love legends. Imagine the mysterious magic of the Australian bush and the sea. The are ancient, and so are their Aboriginal legends.'
'Each tribe has different legends about the land. For many, many years they have repeated them, passing the legends down from generation to generation by word of mouth, telling of spirits being, and the animals, plants and landscapes that they created.'
'The legends in this book are told by Aborigines from widely different regions of Australia: Tasmania, Western Australia and Stradbroke Island.
(...more)Lisa Bellear was a Goernpil woman of the Noonuccal people of Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island), Queensland. She was a poet, writer, visual artist, academic and social commentator who was actively involved in Indigenous affairs throughout Australia. She was an executive member of the Black Women's Action in Education Foundation (BWAEF) and was a volunteer broadcaster on 3CR community radio for eleven years on the 'Not Another Koori Show.' She completed a Bachelor of Social Work in 1986 and completed a Master of Arts (Womens Studies) in 1996 from the University of Melbourne.
Redfern Now is 'the first contemporary TV drama series written, directed and produced by Indigenous Australians.'
Source: ABC Television website.
(...more)A trinity of talented brothers, David, Stephen and Russell. David has composed music for many of the Bangarra Dance Theatre's major works, including Mathinna. Stephen was appointed Artistic Director of Bangarra Dance Theatre in 1991,Russell was an acclaimed dancer for Bangarrabut died in 2002. David and Stephen's latest work Patyegarang tells the story of Patyegarang, the inspirational journey of a potent Indigenous spirit alive in Australia’s past and present.
See also Teaching with BlackWords Information Trails, click on Bundalung Theatre and Film for more David and Stephen's work Mathinna.
'Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2014, Bangarra – Australia’s multi award winning dance theatre company – tells the story of Patyegarang, the inspirational journey of a potent Indigenous spirit alive in Australia’s past and present.'
'As the colonial fleet arrived on Eora country in the late 18th Century, Patyegarang befriended the colony’s timekeeper, Lieutenant William Dawes, gifting him her language in an extraordinary display of trust and friendship, which now inspires our imaginations about ‘first contact’.
(...more)Aileen Moreton-Robinson is a Geonpul woman from Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island), Quandamooka First Nation (Moreton Bay) in Queensland. Professor Moreton-Robinson has held the position of Convenor in Indigenous Studies at Griffith University's School of Humanities and has taught women's studies at Flinders University of South Australia.
In this important and beautifully written book, Aileen Moreton-Robinson gives us a compelling analysis of white Australian feminism seen through Indigenous Australian women's eyes. She unpacks the unspoken normative subject of feminism as white middle-class woman, where whitemess marks their position of power and privilege vis-a-vis Indigenous women, and where silence about whitemess sustains the exercise of that power. And she examines the consequences of practices for Indigenous women and White women.
(...more)Bejam Kunmunara Jarlow Nunukel Kabool, formerly known as Denis Walker is the eldest son of highly respected Aboriginal campaigner and writer, Oodgeroo Noonuccal. Kabool played a key role in the formation of the National Tribal Council in 1970. The organisation was established to assert Aboriginal self determination nationally. In 1972, Kabool formed an Australian version of the Black Panther Party. Since the 1970s, Bejam Kunmunara Jarlow Nunukel Kabool has worked towards the development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services and the improvement of relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
'This legal lie of terra nulliushas been used right up until the HighCourt of Australia handed down its decision on the now famous Mabo case. All previous claims at law by the Indigenous people had, up until that time, foundered on the rocks of that legal lie of terra nullius...' (Source: Speech Beyond Terra Nullius The Lie, 1994)
(...more)This speechwritten by Denis Walker was delivered by Oodgeroo Noonuccal at the Queensland University of Technology in 1992.
Nunukul Yuggera Aboriginal Dance troupe prides itself on being one of the best Aboriginal dance group's in Australia. See their website for more information.
The Oodgeroo Unit has a major responsibility and commitment to developing better access to university education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people so that more have opportunities to participate in the higher levels of education. It also performs a leadership role in the university in the promotion of cultural awareness and social justice for Australia's Indigenous people.
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