Oodgeroo: A Selective Checklist

Abstract

Oodgeroo Noonuccal described herself as an educator and storyteller, as well as a poet. Her poetic legacy is prolific and well documented, but as a committed voice of her people Oodgeroo utilised many other media. This checklist illustrates Oodgeroo's versatility across written, spoken and visual media, and provides a guide to critical and artistic perspectives of her life and work. It is important to emphasise the oral nature of this work, as Oodgeroo herself did, and the checklist has included items that may offer some insight into the strong oral base of her poetry, speeches and stories. It is unfortunate that Oodgeroo's hundreds of speeches at conferences, classes at Moongalba, educational institutions and other public occasions, remain undocumented. Oodgeroo often spoke without any written material, and thus the only record of these speeches may be the memories of those who heard her speak.