Ken Colbung MBE, JP, OAM, has been a respected Nyoongar Elder of the Bibbulmun people. Colbung has been an active campaigner for the recognition of cultural and human rights for Aboriginal people nationally and was originally involved in the Black Power Movement of the 1960s in Australia.
Colbung was born at Moore River Native Settlement. After his mother died when he was six, he was removed from his family and sent to Sister Kate's Home. Colbung worked on farms before joining the Army at nineteen serving for fifteen years during which time he saw active service in the Korean War and rose to the rank of Sergeant.
After the Army, Colbung became involved in Aboriginal politics and worked in New South Wales, Canberra and Western Australia.
Colbung was the founding Chairperson of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia, member and Chairperson of the Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee, WA, and Chairperson of the WA Aboriginal Lands Trust. He was elected Council member and first Indigenous Chairperson of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). Colbung was also the driving force behind the Aboriginal Heritage Protection Act, which came into force in 1972. He also played a key role in retrieving the remains of 19th Century Nyoongar warrior Yagan from Britain in 1998.
Colbung was interviewed and recorded by the National Library of Australia for the Bringing Them Home oral history project and appeared in the associated publication Many Voices: Reflections on experiences of Indigenous child separation, edited by Doreen Mellor and Anna Haebich (2002).
