My people Book

Now published in paperback, this is the third edition of My People but the first to bear the name Oodgeroo. First published in 1970, the anthology of the then Kath Walker was dedicated to 'The Brisbane Aboriginal and Islander Council whose policy is self determination'. The second edition, published in 1981, was dedicated to 'The many people, both black and white, who are fighting for a Makarrata (Aboriginal Land Treaty)'. Oodgeroo's writing has a unique place in Australian literature. She described it herself as 'pure propaganda' and 'not the best but the best selling'. But it is more than that. Not only is it a provocative and emotional plea for the justice that is still to come for Australian Aborigines, but when her poetry was first published in the sixties it began a new phase in the communication between peoples in Australia. For the first time a Black Australian had analysed and judged white Australians as well as her own people. Yet, nearly thirty years later, the final lines of 'Aboriginal Charter of Rights' remain sadly relevant. You devout Salvation-sellers Make us neighbours, not fringe-dwellers, Make us mates, not poor relations, Citizens, not serfs on stations. Must we native Old Australians In our land rank as aliens? Banish bans and conquer caste, Then we'll win our own at last.