Australian Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Indigenous activist, artist and poet, relating how her poetry emerged from the political activism she undertook on behalf of her people. A narrator introduces Noonuccal, filmed with children on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), followed by a black-and-white photograph of her as a younger woman. She reads her poem ‘The dispossessed’, accompanied by soft haunting music. The camera cuts to an Aboriginal artwork with the title of her poem superimposed on it. A series of archival black-and-white photographs illustrate the reading, followed by photographs showing her political activism in the 1960s.

Educational value points

• The clip features the Indigenous Australian poet, artist and political activist Oodgeroo Noonuccal, also known as Kath Walker (1920–93). In 1988 she changed her name to Oodgeroo Noonuccal to identify more closely with her Aboriginal heritage. She was the first successful Indigenous Australian writer and was a prominent activist on behalf of Indigenous people throughout her life. She was also involved in other issues, for example as a member of Writers against Nuclear Armament.

• Noonuccal was a passionate and articulate advocate for Indigenous rights. Through her writing and participation in various organisations she brought national and international focus to bear on the oppression of Indigenous Australians and raised the question of human rights and dignity in relation to their plight. In 1987 she returned the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) she had been awarded in 1970, as a symbolic act of protest against the injustices she believed the upcoming Bicentennial celebrations would commemorate.

• The poem read by Oodgeroo in this clip, ‘The dispossessed’, was included in her first book of poetry, which was also the first published by an Indigenous writer. When this book, We Are Going, was published in 1964 it sold out in 3 days, signifying the beginning of Noonuccal’s successful career as a poet and gaining her international recognition.

• In the clip Noonuccal refers to the inspiration for her poems. She says of her poetry that she heard and expressed the voices of her people. Elsewhere she has said that the poems belong to her people and that as the one who wrote them down she was merely a tool. She has also said she chose poetry as the most personal form of written expression and to appeal to Indigenous people who are natural storytellers and songmakers.

• The clip explores a number of ideas associated with dispossession that relate to Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s poem ‘The dispossessed’, including the belief that Indigenous people were dispossessed of their land with the coming of the British to Australia. The idea that Indigenous people were denied an independent voice to tell their stories is also explored, as well as the idea that they were dispossessed by political groups who claimed them as ‘our blacks’, claiming to be able to speak for them.

• Noonuccal’s participation in the civil rights movement of the 1960s in Australia is illustrated in black-and-white photographs in this clip. This was a significant time for activism on behalf of Indigenous rights, culminating in the 1967 referendum. The referendum proposed that discriminatory clauses against Indigenous Australians be removed from the Constitution. The proposal was accepted by 90 per cent of Australians.

• Some significant archival photographs of Indigenous Australians are shown in the clip, including two showing Indigenous men chained at the neck and being supervised by a man of European ancestry. In 1905 a Royal Commission on the Condition of Natives, established in Perth, Western Australia, investigated why Indigenous people suspected of spearing cattle were always chained together at the neck, usually 15 at a time, when they were to be brought in for questioning.

• This clip forms part of the documentary Dreamtime, Machinetime, which was made in 1987 and focused on the work of Aboriginal writers and artists. This clip focuses on Oodgeroo Noonuccal and features an interview with her. The interviewer is never visible, allowing the film to focus on Noonuccal as she explains the inspiration for her poetry. This gives her words and the archival images freshness and immediacy. Noonuccal’s reading of her poem ‘The dispossessed’ enables the viewer to enter into the performance.