Aunty Ida West (1919–2003), Aboriginal leader. Aunty Ida West and her family were ‘Islanders’, Tasmanian Aborigines who survived the impact of colonial progress. A strong, outspoken woman who was prepared to fight for justice for her family and her community, Ida only ever wanted to see justice and fairness for all. Ida West grew to […]

Of the Ngarrindjeri people, a preacher, inventor and writer. David had a major contribution to Australian society with his public speaking, writings and inventions, particularly his patent for the shears. Unaipon is featured on the Australian $50 note in commemoration. He was the first Aboriginal writer to publish in English, the author of numerous articles […]

Doris Pilkington Garimara AM (born Nugi Garimara), also known as Doris Pilkington, she was best known for her 1996 book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, a story of three Aboriginal girls, among them Pilkington’s mother, Molly Craig, who escaped from the Moore River Native Settlement in Western Australia and travelled for nine weeks to return to […]

Ellie grew up on Thursday Island and went to school at Cowal Creek Mission on Cape York Peninsula. At the start of the Second World War in 1940, her mother and some of her siblings were evacuated to Cherbourg reservation (north west of Brisbane). When her brother was wounded in the war and returned home, […]

Born to a Bundjalung mother and a Belgian father, Fabienne worked for the Native Title Unit, Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement, and in the Parliamentary Research Unit. After moving from Canberra to Adelaide, she concentrated more on her writing and motherhood. She filled her days with reading, and writing, and she was working towards a PhD […]

Gerry Bostock, a Bundjalung man, was an Aboriginal healer from New South Wales. In 1972, Gerry Bostock participated in the political struggle surrounding the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra. He helped establish the Black Theatre in Sydney. Gerry wrote the poem ‘Black Children’ which was later published in Black Man Coming (1980). Gerry found it hard to […]

Hyllus Noel Maris (1933-1986), Aboriginal rights campaigner, community worker, educator, poet and scriptwriter, was born on 25 December 1933 at Echuca. Hyllus was of Yorta Yorta and Wurundjeri (Woiworung) descent and spent her early childhood at Cummeragunja Aboriginal station, New South Wales. Her grandmother educated her in Aboriginal culture, genealogy and history, and both parents […]

Jack was born in Perth and became an activist on behalf of his people and from 1967–71 was director of the Aboriginal Centre in Perth. In 1971 he was chairman of the Aboriginal Lands Trust in WA and was managing editor of the Aboriginal cultural magazine Identity in the Aboriginal Publications Foundation. In 1979 his […]

Jimmy was born in Broome in 1948, to a Bardi Aboriginal mother with Scottish heritage and a Broome born father whose parents were Chinese and Japanese. In 1981, Jimmy and other musicians from Broome formed the band Kuckles in Adelaide while they were studying at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM). The band […]

A Wiradjuri warrior Kevin was a tireless advocate for Aboriginal rights. He became the first Aboriginal playwright with The Cherry Pickers. Kevin wrote many books Because a White man’ll Never Do It, Living Black, Aboriginal Sovereignty, Justice, the Law and Land (including Draft Treaty) and Child’s Dreaming. His anthology Inside Black Australia, won the 1988 […]

Lester was raised at Box Ridge Reserve in New South Wales and has been involved in Aboriginal community affairs since the 1960s, through theatre, film, radio, television and community development. He is brother to Gerry Bostock. In 2009, part of Bostock’s life story was featured in the National Museum of Australia’s exhibition From Little Things […]

Lisa was an Aboriginal Australian poet, photographer, activist, spokeswoman, dramatist, comedian and broadcaster. She was a Goernpil woman of the Noonuccal people of Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island), Queensland. Lisa died unexpectedly at her home in Melbourne. She was 45 years old. She wrote Dreaming In Urban Areas (UQP, 1996), a book of poetry which explores the […]

Margaret Ann Woods, a Ngarrindjeri Kaurna woman from South Australia, inspired many writers and readers throughout her long career as a writer/poet. As probably the first South Australian Aboriginal female writer to be published, she was a pioneer in First Nations Australia literature in that state; following in the footsteps of her relative David Unaipon.  […]

On the fourth day of the New Year, Australia lost one of its most respected Aboriginal women, Aunty Maureen Watson. Tireless educator and campaigner for the rights of her people, gifted and passionate performer on stage and film, poet, author and playwright, children’s author, beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and recognised Murri elder in South-East […]

During the 1960s she emerged as a prominent political activist and writer. She was Queensland state secretary of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI),and was involved in a number of other political organisations. She was a key figure in the campaign for the reform of the Australian constitution […]