Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Oodgeroo Noonuccal (November 3, 1920 - September 16, 1993) was an Australian Aboriginal political activist, artist and educator.

Quotes

• …I’m very rich because I’m loved by all my people, it’s a very beautiful thing. No money could surpass that. The love that my people feel for me is just so tremendous. It’s a lovely feeling.
  • On being accepted by her people as a spokesperson in “‘Recording the Cries of the People’: AN INTERVIEW WITH OODGEROO (KATH WALKER)” in Kunapipi (1988)

• …I can’t afford the luxury of despair or pessimism. We still have to hope. We’re a timeless people, we’ve lived in a timeless land. We have suffered the invasion of two hundred years, and we’ll go on suffering. But we are going to survive…
  • On the Aboriginal people in “‘Recording the Cries of the People’: AN INTERVIEW WITH OODGEROO (KATH WALKER)” in Kunapipi (1988)

• …In the Aboriginal world we give way to all emotions. In the ‘British’, the present white generation of Australian people have been told that to cry is weakness, and if a ten year old boy gets up and cries they say, My goodness! But in the Aboriginal world, to cry is a beautiful thing. To us it’s compassion…
  • On how emotions differ between Aboriginal and British culture in “‘Recording the Cries of the People’: AN INTERVIEW WITH OODGEROO (KATH WALKER)” in Kunapipi (1988)

• …in the early stages, the whites were kept very effectively away from the Aborigines. And whites will tell you quite blankly, I’ve never met an Aborigine in my life, so how could they know about us, how could they feel for us? It was done deliberately. They didn’t want friends of the Aborigines coming out and upsetting the jolly old white Australian apple cart you know, rocking the boat.
  • On how she might attract a White audience as well as a Black audience in “‘Recording the Cries of the People’: AN INTERVIEW WITH OODGEROO (KATH WALKER)” in Kunapipi (1988)