Robert Walker was an Aboriginal poet. The second youngest of 12 children, Walker's father died when he was three and his mother moved to suburban Adelaide. It was unusual for Aboriginal families to own property in suburbs at that time and there was considerable cross-cultural conflict with neighbours and the large Walker family. Walker was also strongly influenced in his early childhood by elderly tribal members of his family who lived in Andamooka.
In 1973, the family moved to Port Lincoln and Walker left school, aged 14, after receiving a poor education. He had already become a frequent alcohol and drug abuser. He was institutionalised in 1974 after breaching a bond by illegally using a motor vehicle. His first court appearance had been in 1971 for the theft of three milk bottles and the illegal use of a car. A number of minor and then gradually more serious offenses, including a number of sexual offences, followed. Walker moved to Perth in 1982 and was immediately in trouble with the law. He escaped from the East Perth lock-up and was re-arrested in Adelaide two days later. He served a term in a South Australian prison before being extradited to Western Australia and being declared an habitual criminal.
Walker's education had been greatly disrupted and he was often described as 'of below average' intelligence. However, numerous assessments during Walker's institutionalised years suggest that he 'was of above average intelligence with considerable literary, musical and artistic skills'. But, whilst in prison Walker wrote poetry about his thoughts and feelings.
In the early hours of Tuesday, 28 August, 1984 Walker died in Fremantle Prison; after prison officers removed him from his cell, he was beaten sustaining fatal injuries.
In November 1997 the Canberra chapter of PEN planted a tree in Lennox Gardens in memory of Walker.
