Oodgeroo Noonuccal
Turning points:
- 1933- Worked as a domestic servant in Brisbane.
- 1941- Enlisted in the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS).
- 1942- Get married "Bruce Raymond Walker".
- The couple became involved in the Communist Party of Australia—the only political party in Australian did not support the White Australia policy at this time.
- 1946- Her son "Denis" was born. The couple had separated.
- 1964- Published her first collection "We Are Going".
- At the same time as developing her reputation as a poet, Walker became increasingly engaged in political activism in support of Aboriginal rights, social justice.
- 1969- Attended the World Council of Churches’ Consultation on Racism in London. She returned to Australia convinced of the need for Aboriginal activists to work within their own political organisations rather than white-dominated ones.
- 1971- Because of power struggles within the Brisbane Council, she left the organisation and returned to her ancestral home of North Stradbroke Island.
Achievements:
- Attended Dunwich State School.
- Became interested in writing poetry. By the late 1950s she had joined the Brisbane arm of the Realist Writer’s Group.
- First collection in 1964 was an immediate commercial success, selling more than ten thousand copies and making Walker the best-selling Australian poet since C. J. Dennis.
- 1966- Published her second poetry collection: "The Dawn is at Hand".
- 1970- (1970, rev. eds. 1981, 1990) - A third collection, "My People: A Kath Walker Collection".
- She became involved in the Queensland Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (QCAATSI) and came to play an important role in the national organisation, the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI). The FCAATSI played a leading role in the agitation that led to voting rights (in 1965) and Australian citizenship (in 1967) for Aborigines.
- Entered a new phase of her career where she assumed the role of educator and cultural guardian and ambassador for her people.
- 1972- Published "Stradbroke Dreamtime".
- 1978- Was poet-in-residence at Bloomsburg State College, in Pennsylvania, USA, and visited a number of other US Colleges.
- 1981- Published "Father Sky and Mother Earth".
- 1988- Published "The Rainbow Serpent".
- 1982- Awarded the FAW Christopher Brennan award for her contribution to Australian literature.
- 1984- Visited China as part of an Australian cultural delegation, the trip providing the inspiration for her fourth and final poetry collection, Kath Walker in China (1988).
- 1988- Awarded honorary doctorates from Macquarie University.
- 1989- Awarded honorary doctorates from Griffith University.
- 1990 -Published "Legends of Our Land".
- 1991- Awarded honorary doctorates from Monash University.
- 1992- Awarded honorary doctorates from Queensland University of Technology.
- 1992- Published "Australia’s Unwritten History: More Legends of Our Land".
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