Oodgeroo Noonuccal

(1920 - 1993)

Born Kathleen Ruska in Queensland in 1920, the first published Aboriginal poet was a member of the Noonuccal tribe. She became the secretary of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in 1960, published We Are Going in 1964, and helped to pass a constitutional amendment that granted suffrage for Aborigines in 1967. In 1988 Ruska gave back her Member of the Order of the British Empire award and adopted the name Oodgeroo Noonuccal.