Australian Dictionary of Biography

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Life Summary

Name	Oodgeroo Noonuccal
Alternative Names	Kathleen Jean Ruska Kathleen Jean Walker
Born	3 November, 1920 Bulimba, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Died	16 September, 1993 (aged 72) Greenslopes, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Cause of Death	cancer (not specified)
Cultural Heritage	Indigenous Australian Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.
Related Entries	[View as tree] Clark, Mavis Thorpe (acquaintance) Nicholls, Douglas Ralph (associate) Gilmore, Mary Jean (supporter) Devaney, James Martin (mentor) Cilento, Raphael West (employer) Cilento, Phyllis Dorothy (employer)
Education *	Dunwich State School (Qld) (student, 1926-1934)
Occupation or Descriptor *	domestic servant (1935-1941) Queensland, Australia soldier (1942-1944) Federal, Australia typist (1944-1950) Queensland, Australia vigoro player (1946-1954) Queensland, Australia communist (1951-1960) Queensland, Australia domestic servant (1951-1964) Queensland, Australia Indigenous leader (1960-1993) Queensland, Australia Indigenous rights activist/supporter (1960-1993) Queensland, Australia poet (1964-1988) Queensland, Australia children's author (1972-1981) Queensland, Australia educationist (1972-1993) Queensland, Australia anti-nuclear campaigner (1980-1993) Queensland, Australia
Awards	Dame Mary Gilmore medal (recipient) Jessie Litchfield award for literature (recipient, 1967) Member of the Order of the British Empire (recipient, 1983)
Key Events *	referendum on Indigenous rights (1967) (activist supporting it)
Groups *	Brisbane Realist Writers Group (member)
Legacies *	Oodgeroo Unit (Queensland University of Technology) (eponym)
Key Organisations *	David Unaipon Award for Indigenous writers (judge) Queensland Aboriginal Advancement League (committee member) Queensland Writers Centre (patron) Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (committee member, 1962)
Political Activism *	Communist ALP (political candidate, 1969) Australian Democrats (political candidate, 1983)

* Dates are approximate