My People

by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

2026 Hall of Fame Honouree of The Luminas national honours program (presented by Diversity Arts Australia and Media Diversity Australia)

Oodgeroo’s writing has a unique place in Australian literature. When her poetry was first published in the 1960s, Kath Walker, as she was known then, provided a brave new voice for marginalised Aboriginal Australians. For the first time, an Aboriginal Australian was analysing and judging white Australians as well as her own people. She often made provocative and passionate pleas for

We want hope, not racialism,
Brotherhood, not ostracism,
Black advance, not white
Make us equals, not dependants.

This collection of poetry and prose is a reminder of Oodgeroo’s contribution to Indigenous culture and the journey toward reconciliation. All Australians should be proud of this poet who dedicated her life to her people and her land.

Genres: Poetry, Australia, Indigenous, Nonfiction, School, Teaching

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Oodgeroo Noonuccal (/ˈʊdʒəruː/ /ˈnuːnəkəl/ uud-gə-roo noo-nə-kəl; born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska, formerly Kath Walker) (3 November 1920 – 16 September 1993) was an Australian poet, political activist, artist and educator. She was also a campaigner for Aboriginal rights. Oodgeroo was best known for her poetry, and was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse.

Oodgeroo won several literary awards, including the Mary Gilmore Medal (1970), the Jessie Litchfield Award (1975), and the Fellowship of Australian Writers' Award.

In 1979, she was awarded the Sixth Annual Oscar at the Micheaux Awards Ceremony, hosted by the US Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and in the same year received the International Acting Award for the film Shadow Sisters.

She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1970, returning it in 1987 to protest the Australian Bicentenary celebrations, and to make a political statement at the condition of her people.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Max D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ignore this review it's essentially going to be a long list of my favourite poems from the collection for future reference:

*The curlew cried.
*Tree Grave.
*Last of his tribe.
*Corroboree
*Assimilation - no! --"Pour your pitcher of wine into the wide river and where is your wine? / There is only the river."
*The food gatherers -- "Even the small bronze chickowee /That gossips in bright melody –/Look, into the clump he's gone, /He has a little murder on! /For food is life and life is still /The old carnage, and all must kill"
*Gifts -- (this is how those stupid sappy romance monologues feel sometimes.)
*Municipal Gum
*Tribal justice -- (I like a whole short narrative in poem form.)
*Namatjira
*Understand, Old One
*Gooboora, the silent pool
*Cookalingee
*United we win
*Verses
*Civilisation
*Freedom
*Return to Nature
*Daisy Bindi
*Oh, Trugganner!

Reading her biography at the end was quite powerful, as well. I'm glad it was included. I quite liked the voice behind the poems, it seemed to swing regularly between emotional and sardonic. The second half of the collection spoke to me a bit more than the first, but I'd have to go through with more a fine-tooth comb to work out why.

[Nola Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains mainly poetry from Oodgeroo Noonuccal (formerly Kath Walker), though it also includes a short story (Interlude), a non-fiction piece about Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island), the script of the performance piece that visitors at Expo '88 saw when they entered the Australia Pavilion, a speech that she gave on receiving an honorary doctorate from Griffith University, and a biography. I especially liked the poetry, but the whole book is really powerful.

The poems cover a range of topics, including aboriginal culture and the environment. However, the majority of them relate to social justice themes, especially racism and reconciliation. 'Dark Unmarried Mothers' tells the story of how the white establishment turned a blind eye when white bosses raped aboriginal girls. 'Cookalingee' is dedicated to Elsie Lewis, a cook who had to work on a white man's Station for no wages, but secretly shared the food with others from her tribe who came to the door. 'The Dispossessed' is for Uncle Willie Mackenzie: 'A dying race, you linger on, degraded and oppressed/ Outcasts in your own native land, you are the dispossessed'.

The poems I found especially confronting were the ones that talked about the hypocrisy of Christians. For example, the following lines from 'Intolerance':

'Dark children coming home in tears,
Hurt and bewildered by their jeers -
I think Christ weeps with you, my dears.

People who say, by bias driven,
That colour must not be forgiven,
Would snub the Carpenter in heaven.'

Or the following lines from 'Aboriginal Charter of Rights':

'Give incentive, not restriction,
Give us Christ, not crucifixion.
Though baptised and blessed and Bibled
We are still tabooed and libelled.
You devout Salvation-sellers,
Make us neighbours, not fringe-dwellers.'

But there are also poems of hope. For example, the following lines from 'Let us Not Be Bitter':

'Let us judge white people by the best of their race.
The prejudiced ones are less than we,
We want them no more than they want us.
Let us not be bitter, that is an empty thing,
A maggot in the mind.'

And the following lines from 'A Song of Hope':

'Look up, my people,
The dawn is breaking,
The world is waking
To a bright new day,
When none defame us,
No restriction tame us,
Nor colour shame us,
Nor sneer dismay.'

This is not a comfortable book to read, but it is an important one. The poems are just as relevant today as they were when Oodgeroo wrote them. If I quoted all of the lines that affected me, I would have to reproduce about half of the book. Oodgeroo remains one of the most influential poets of her generation. I highly recommend this book.

[Natasha (jouljet) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a knockout poetry collection, of Aboriginal history and knowledge, cultural practices, place, and fight. The activism and love in this little volume is incredible.

So much to learn and take in with these poems.

Included is Oodgeroo's speech at the Griffith University acceptance presentation for an Honorary Doctorate in 1989. A blistering, rich and fierce speech - a call to arms, a call for white people in Australia to learn the history of Australia, for the betterment of the country. All rings true today, as much as it did the day it was delivered.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the most technically wowing poetry, by Oodgeroo's own admission, but still powerful. Would be a particularly good read if poetry tends to intimidate you.
Favourites:
My Love
Gifts
Nona
We are Going
and of course, the Aboriginal Charter of Rights

[Saturn · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

Per i nativi l'Australia è la terra dei canti, una terra di storie che segnano percorsi e di popoli che sulle loro note si mettono in cammino. In questo contesto Oodgeroo Noonuccal decide di diventare la cantrice del suo popolo.
Attraverso la corposa introduzione di Margherita Zanoletti si aprono le porte di un mondo poco conosciuto e si entra in contatto con un popolo (ma sarebbe meglio dire popoli) che il racconto storico occidentale ha sempre messo ai margini.
La poesia di Oodgeroo Noonuccal entra nell'anima per parlare di speranza, di forza, di desiderio di concordia. Nonostante tutto il dolore e la sofferenza, nonostante la nostalgia di un'epoca più che perduta, spezzata nel suo corso.

Dovrebbe essere impossibile capire davvero che significa vedere la propria gente uccisa, quasi sterminata, la propria cultura vilipesa e quasi annientata, per chi non ha vissuto tutto questo in prima persona. Eppure una poesia può avere la forza di trasmettere tutto questo, di entrare nella pelle di chi ha dovuto lottare per non scomparire e spesso senza successo.

A volte una sola poesia racchiude tutta la sofferenza, la nostalgia eppure anche tutta la speranza e la resilienza di un popolo che non si arrende a essere cancellato dalla storia.

Sono poesie che mi hanno messo in contatto con una cultura diversa, con schemi di pensiero differenti. Ma sono anche poesie che parlano a tutti noi, nel tempo presente. Parlano di una terra violata, sfruttata, quasi distrutta per la ricchezza di pochi. Parlano della necessità vitale di tutelare la propria terra e quindi il proprio futuro.

Parlano poi di un popolo che deve lasciar andare una parte di sé per sopravvivere. Parlano di pace, di mani tese per costruire un cammino comune e dare vita a una nuova alba che possa illuminare un mondo più giusto ed equo.

Chiudo il libro però con la tristezza data dalla consapevolezza che a qualche decennio di distanza dalla stesura di queste poesie non molto è cambiato nella condizione di vita degli aborigeni australiani.

The miner rapes
The heart of earth
With is violent spade.
Stealing, bottling her black blood
For the sake of greedy trade.
On his metal throne of destruction,
He labours away with a will,
Piling the mountainous minerals high
With giant tool and iron drill.

In his greedy lust for power,
He destroys old nature's will.
For sake of the filthy dollar,
He dirties the nest he builds.
Well he knows that violence
Of his destructive kind
Will be violently written
Upon the sands of time.

But time is running out
And time is close at hand,
For the Dreamtime folk are massing
To defend their timeless land.
Come gentle black man
Show your strength;
Time to take a stand.
Make the violent miner feel
Your violent
Love of land.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am fortunate enough to have heard Oodgeroo read her poetry. Her rhythms are best with sound, beating out a sense of time. She recited slowly, owning the time for each word, and landing the impact of her killer final lines. It was many years ago - she was introduced as Kath Walker then - and I was a wee thing, but I have never forgotten the experience.

Picking up this volume I was a little trepidatious. But while some of the 1960s terminology includes some offensive terms, and her technique can be at times clumsy, there is no questioning how impactful many of these poems are. All One Race, for example, would be more quotable if written with access to modern access to Indigenous terms, but you can't deny the humour and passion of:

They’re not interested in brumby runs,
We don’t hanker after Midnight Suns;
I’m for all humankind, not colour gibes;
I’m international, and never mind tribes.

A big strength of this poetry doesn't require literary training to parse either. She speaks of lore, of prejudice, of hypocrisy, and does so in frank and simple language.

Other poems deal with Noonuccal culture, such as the humour and rhythm of Jarri's Love Song

"I got belly-bruise from a club,
But I … got … Nona!
I got a sore where I sit down
But I .. got … Nona.
Lost 'em firesticks, broke it woomera.
No more fishnet, no more tomahawk,
Got no gooreen, got no shield
But I … got … Nona."

This is welcoming poetry, made to make people laugh, and wince and cry and most of all share. And yes, to take action. I had a great time reading it, and frankly, it is a little frustrating that the volume is out of print, and relatively hard to get hold off, given that it is both accessible and significant.

"Pour your pitcher of wine into the wide river
And where is your wine? There is only the river.
Must the genius of an old race die
That the race might live?
We who would be one with you, one people,
We must surrender now much that we love,
The old freedoms for new musts,
Your world for ours,
But a core is left that we must keep always.
Change and compel, slash us into shape,
But nor our roots deep in the soil of old."

I like the angry stuff, it is in my nature perhaps, but in the end it is a hopefulness that we can learn better that stays with me, and this:

"But remember, white man, if life is for happiness,
You too, surely, have much to change."

2019 Reading Challenge #2. A book that makes you nostalgic

[Anchal Bhatia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oodgeroo has a talent of using very few words to paint extremely descriptive and informative scenarios. An excellent way to become intrigued of the history of the Aboriginal people in Australia and motivation to learn more.

[Emory Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of poems by Oodgeroo Noonuccal and includes a speech at the end which was given when she received an honorary doctorate from Griffith University.

Some of the poems are hopeful, expressing a desire to see a truly multicultural society come about, wherein Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Australia truly respect and learn from one another (mostly things that need to be done on the non-Indigenous side).

Other poems are filled with sorrow - sadness about a happiness and freedom that is seen as being left behind and replaced with working for a dollar value. These poems are philosophical. Others express pain about deaths, change, lost languages and more.

There are elements of Christianity throughout, as well as some terminology or ideas (e.g. 'progress', 'civilisation') that may seem outdated (or viewed differently) now. It's important to consider when this was written while reading it.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920 - 1993) was born on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) in Queensland to parents Edward Ruska, a Quandamooka man from the Noonuccal Clan from the Moreton Bay area and Stradbroke Island; and Lucy, from the Peewee clan from inland Australia.  They named her Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska, and for many years she was known to Australians as the first published Aboriginal poet under her married name Kath Walker.  In 1988 she changed her name to Oodgeroo (meaning 'paperbark tree') Noonuccal.

She could only access a rudimentary education and went into domestic service but enlisted in the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) after her two brothers were captured by the Japanese in the Fall of Singapore.  She was one of the Aboriginal officers that was featured in the DVA Indigenous Service curriculum unit that I used to teach my Year 5 and 6 students, and her photo is on the front cover of the DVA booklet (2nd from left at the top).

She emerged as an activist during the 1960s and her best-selling first book We Are Going (1964), was the first book to be published by an Aboriginal woman.  She used her poetry to convey her pride in her Aboriginality, her desire for equality and to advocate for change.  As Mairi Neil notes in her review of this collection, the tone of the poems changes as the pages progress.  The optimism of an inclusive approach towards reconciliation can be seen in the first poems:

'All One Race'

Black tribe, yellow tribe, red, white or brown,
From where the sun jumps up to where it goes down,
Herrs and pukka-sahibs, demoiselles and squaws,
All one family, so why make wars?
[...]
I'm for all humankind, not colour gibes;
I’m international, and never mind tribes.(p.1)

In 'Let Us Not Be Bitter' she acknowledges that her people must try to understand the white man's ways/And accept them as they accept us

Away with bitterness, my own dark people
Come stand with me, look forward, not back,
For a new time has come for us,
Now we must change, my people. For so long
Time for us stood still; now we know
Life is change, life is progress,
Life is learning things, life is onward.
White men had to learn civilised ways,
Now it is our turn… (p2)

The past is gone, she writes, and The future comes like dawn after the dark/bringing fulfilment. 

In 'Stone Age', she reminds White man, only time is between us because once in the time long gone you lived in caves and thought that lightning was magic.

We are the last of the Stone Age tribes,
Waiting for time to help us
As time helped you. (p.21)

In 'An Appeal' she urges statesmen, writers, unions, churches and the press — the most powerful of all —

Right us a wrong and break the thrall
That keeps us low.  (p.3)

But after these exhortations, comes a lament for the women and girls exploited by low-grade animals while the white community washes their hand of it like Pilate.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/01/28/m...

[mica · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Leave us alone, we don't want your collars and ties,
We don't need your routines and compulsions.
We want the old freedom and joy that all things have but you,
Poor white man of the unhappy race."

“We want hope, not racialism,
Brotherhood, not ostracism,
Black advance, not white ascendance:
Make us equals, not dependents.
We need help, not exploitation,
We want freedom, not frustration”

“Must we native Old Australians
In our land rank as aliens?
Banish bans and conquer caste,
Then we'll win our own at last.”

“Make us songs in colour and line:
Painting is speech, painter and poet are one.
Paint what you feel more than the thing you see,
My artist son.”

“Pain there must be and tears,
Sorrow and death, but not
Intolerance, unkindness, cruelty,
Unless men choose
The mean and base, which Nature never made,
But we alone.”

“Mrs Daisy Bindi of Western Australia's far inland made a name for herself as an Aboriginal leader of her people. On Roy Hill Station where she worked, the native stockmen and domestics received no wages till at last she organised them and fought for the rights of her race. It was a long struggle and marked by disgraceful incidents against the Aboriginals concerned, but the final result was victory and the establishment of the admirable Pindan Co-operative Aboriginal community at Port Hedland.”

1989 - Speech Oodgeroo gave when she received the honorary doctorate from Griffith University
“At present, however, when Aboriginal people ‘achieve' at a university or tertiary institution, they are forced to lead a double life. By day such a person is a replica of a white Australian, slightly — sometimes heavily — suntanned, who is taught to respect and accept the same Anglo-Saxon heroes as his or her peers; by night, a ‘real' person, with his or her own cultural identity. I have named this double existence. ‘the super-hero syndrome'.”

“As I have previously stated, Australian history books assert that Aboriginal and Australian history began in 1770. Our children's textbooks still imply this nonsense. We are also urged to believe that our Aboriginal political existence began on 27 May 1967, with the referendum.
Australian archaeologists are just now beginning to discover what Aboriginal people have always known. We have been here for a very, very long time, and, furthermore, much to the disgust of some, have no intention of going away, even in the face of attempted genocide.”

“Fiji, however, is a very real beginning of the Southern Hemisphere of the future, if indeed there is to be a future for humankind under the umbrellas of nations who have at their heads fascist, nationalist boys who long to play with atomic toys.”

“No change will or can occur until the theft of Aboriginal land and the attempted enslaving and slaughter are redressed and compensated. This Aboriginal land will never accept and will always be alien to any race who dares try enslave her. Aborigines will always be the custodians of their traditional lands, regardless of any other enforced law system, for the land is our Mother. We cannot own her; she owns us!”

[David Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will bring you love, said the young lover,

A glad light to dance in your dark eye.

Pendants I will bring of the white bone,

And gay parrot feathers to deck your hair.

But she only shook her head.

I will put a child in your arms, he said,

Will be a great headman, great rain-maker.

I will make remembered songs about you

That all the tribes in all the wandering camps

Will sing for ever.

But she was not impressed.

I will bring you the still moonlight on the lagoon,

And steal for you the singing of all the birds;

I will bring down the stars of heaven to you,

And put the bright rainbow into your hand.

No, she said, bring me tree-grubs.

"GIFTS" by Noonuccal Oodgeroo

My People ** Bought in a book store in Melbourne and read in Melbourne, along the Great Ocean Road, and Hobart, Australia (Dec 2023 - Jan 2024)

[Becky Salomons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every single one of these poems are filled with depth, truth and great perspective. I loved there rawness and realness - I thought and felt very deeply the whole time was I was reading these poems. Many of the poems will hit you across the face like a bucket of cold water! it will be intense but it will wake you the hell up. Some people might struggle with some of the unpolished edges but for me personally this was one of the elements in Oodgeroo’s poetry I loved the most. It was refreshing to hear a voice with such a degree of views (happy and sad and many more in between) showing many sides of the coin but giving a much needed window in to the oldest culture on earth - a must read for all Australians.

[Eli Tidd · Rating 5 out of 5]

“White Australians must accept that it is time for them to be the listeners and the learners. They must accept that Aboriginal and ethnic people have their own traditional and contemporary tutors, and they are available here and now. In short, let us learn and understand logical grassroots culture of all races - an exchange where all races stand equal unto each other. Then and only then can there ever be a true multicultural Australia.”

[Kate Larsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful collection of lyrical and political First Nations poetry, with clear calls for action and justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from the 1970s that are as relevant (and depressingly similar) to today’s.

“We want hope, not racialism,
Brotherhood, not ostracism,
Black advance, not white ascendance:
Make us equals, not dependants.”

[Michelle Buddhi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems of love, loss, colonialism, resilience, heart break, love of Country, kinship, culture, truth... It’s a no brainer that Oodgeroo’s work should be taught in schools. I can’t believe we still don’t get the young ones on these books. Grateful to read a gem like this!

[Katharine Smth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book so much, I am actually so serious! It's actually so good and interesting especially because it's indigenous australian literature. My favourite school book ever. Like Outsiders doesnt even compare!!!

[Kindredcrafters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely book.

[Elizabeth]

Really moving poems, I loved so many, including:

Community rain song
No more boomerang
Corroboree
Gooboora
Cookalingee
Verses
Time is running out

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

"All things wild and tameless,
Hunted down and hated,
Something in my wild heart
With your own is mated."

[Rosa Frei · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and moving.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely use of language, of rhythm and story telling. Still relevant today.

[Piper Markson]

‘Pour your pitcher of wine into the wide river
And where is your wine? There is only the river.’

[Paul Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's no doubt that some poems are better than others, but an essential book for readers interested in Australia's troubled past.

[Mairin]

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/col...

[TrenchCoatKid · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing book that details the experiences of Aboriginal Australian peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples in a way that hits deep.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I was reading this collection of poetry and essays, I was mindful of the need to consider context. It was originally published in 1970 and I tried to think about the messages contained from that perspective. I also considered what was said and how it was said in the here and now. The author has two very distinct themes running through each page- loss and hope, in equal measure. She does not shy away from the systematic destruction and devastation of traditional Aboriginal life, but she is hopeful that a brighter future is possible if Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people genuinely work together to build a equitable and respectful society. The shameful truth is that I don't believe such a society has been created, even 46 years later. I wonder if the author would write such a hopeful collection now, after decades of continued pain, suffering, discrimination and violence against her people. I loved many of the poems contained in the collection, but my favourites were 'The Dawn is at Hand' and 'The Bunyip'. Each page was crafted with love and a deep sense of self. I look forward to reading this collection again in the not so distant future, when I hope the brighter future she foresaw is closer at hand.

[Thomas Rasmussen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Svær at bedømme - digte om vrede og forsoning, digte om liv og race og stolthed.

Det giver ingen mening, at vurdere digtene som digte alene. "Oodgeroo embraced the idea of her poetry as propaganda, and described her own style as 'sloganistic, civil-writerish, plain and simple'" - siger Wikipedia og det rammer ret godt.

Vi er helt inde i maskinrummet af australsk, aboriginal selverkendelse og samling. Og det er et spændende sted at lytte med og prøve at forstå.

Men det er også lidt som at forsøge at genopleve en FLUXUX-performance. Jeg ville (realistisk set nok) ikke have forstået det den gang... og nu er det for sent... akademisk, historisk.

Anyway - nogle digte mætter, andre vækker appetit.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, the the poetry is raw in terms of technique, but it's also full of raw power that really shines through. A hugely important and influential book when it comes to the expression of Aboriginal rights in Australia.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading these poems- I liked the fact that they’re reflective of what’s happen in Australian history and I think there’s a lot in there that Australian Christians need to reflect on (in terms of the part we’ve played in colonisation using faith as a basis for that).

[Clare Bear]

A poet I saw interviewed as part of an artists program on NITV, my favourite Austar (cable) channel.