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Oodgeroo Noonuccal ( ; born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska, formerly Kath Walker) (3 November 192016 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 Noonuccal." Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement, Vol. 27. Gale, 2007〕 ==Life as a poet, artist, writer and activist== During the 1960s Kath Walker 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),〔Cochrane, (1994), p. 63.〕 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 to allow Aboriginal people full citizenship, lobbying Prime Minister Robert Menzies in 1965, and his successor Harold Holt in 1966.〔Cochrane, (1994), p. 67; Elaine Darling, ''They spoke out pretty good: politics and gender in the Brisbane Aboriginal Rights Movement 1958–1962'' (St Kilda, Vic.: Janoan Media Exchange, c1998.), p. 189.〕 At one deputation in 1963, she taught Robert Menzies a lesson in the realities of Aboriginal life. After the Prime Minister offered the deputation an alcoholic drink, he was startled to learn from her that in Queensland he could be jailed for this.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Oodgeroo Noonuccal - Reconciliation Australia )〕 She wrote many books, beginning with ''We Are Going'' (1964), the first book to be published by an Aboriginal woman.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Maori and Aboriginal Women in the Public Eye: Representing Difference, 1950-2000 )〕 The title poem concludes:
This first book of poetry was extraordinarily successful, selling out in several editions, and setting Oodgeroo well on the way to be Australia's highest-selling poet alongside C. J. Dennis.〔Mitchell, (1987), pp. 200–2〕 Critics' responses, however, were mixed, with some questioning whether Oodgeroo, as an Aboriginal person, could really have written it herself. Others were disturbed by the activism of the poems, and found that they were "propaganda" rather than what they considered to be real poetry.〔Rooney, Brigid, Literary activists: writer-intellectuals and Australian public life (St Lucia, Qld.) : University of Queensland Press, 2009, pp. 68–9〕 Oodgeroo embraced the idea of her poetry as propaganda, and described her own style as "sloganistic, civil-writerish, plain and simple."〔Kath Walker, "Aboriginal Literature" ''Identity'' 2.3 (1975) pp. 39–40〕 She wanted to convey pride in her Aboriginality to the broadest possible audience, and to popularise equality and Aboriginal rights through her writing.〔Cochrane, (1994), p. 37〕 In 1972 she bought a property on North Stradbroke Island (also known as ''Minjerribah'') which she called Moongalba ('sitting-down place'), and established the Noonuccal-Nughie Education and Cultural Centre.〔 And in 1977, a documentary about her, called ''Shadow Sister'', was released. It was directed and produced by Frank Heimans and photographed by Geoff Burton. It describes her return to Moongalba and her life there.〔(Shadow Sister: A Film Biography of Aboriginal Poet Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal), MBE )〕 In a 1987 interview, she described her education program at Moongalba, saying that over "the last seventeen years I've had 26,500 children on the island. White kids as well as black. And if there were green ones, I'd like them too ... I'm colour blind, you see. I teach them about Aboriginal culture. I teach them about the balance of nature."〔Mitchell, (1987), p. 206.〕 Oodgeroo was committed to education at all levels, and collaborated with universities in creating programs for teacher education that would lead to better teaching in Australian schools.〔Rhonda Craven, "The role of teachers in the Year of Indigenous people: Oodgeroo of the Tribe Noonuccal (Kath Walker)", ''Aboriginal Studies Association Journal'', No. 3 (1994), p. 55-56.〕 In 1974 Noonuccal was aboard a British Airways flight that was hijacked by terrorists campaigning for Palestinian liberation. The hijackers shot a crew member and a passenger and forced the plane to fly to several different African destinations. During her three days in captivity, she used a blunt pencil and an airline sickbag from the seat pocket to write two poems, 'Commonplace' and 'Yusuf (Hijacker)'. In 1983 she ran in the Queensland state election for the Australian Democrats political party in the seat of Redlands. Her campaign focused around policies promoting the environment and Aboriginal rights.〔Floyd, B., ''Inside Story'', p. 71, Boolarong Press, Salisbury〕 In 1988 she adopted a traditional name: Oodgeroo (meaning "paperbark tree") Noonuccal (her tribe's name).〔(Notable Biographies: Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement: Supplement (Mi-So): Oodgeroo Noonuccal Biography )〕 She died in 1993 in Victoria aged 72.〔(National Foundation for Australian Women's Biographical Entry ) - Retrieved 4 July 2012.〕 A play has since been written by Sam Watson entitled ''Oodgeroo: Bloodline to Country'' commemorating Oodgeroo Noonuccal's life, being a play based on Oodgeroo Noonuccal's real life experience as an Aboriginal woman on board a flight hijacked by Palestinian terrorists on her way home from a committee meeting in Nigeria for the World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Oodgeroo - Bloodline To Country )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Oodgeroo Noonuccal」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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