Image Not Available

Kevin Gilbert

1933-1993

BiographyKevin Gilbert a Wiradjuri man was born on the Kalara (Lachlan River) riverbank in Condobolin, New South Wales. An activist, artist, poet, playwright and printmaker Gilbert was the youngest of eight children. After losing his parents at an early age Gilbert was sent to an orphanage which he later escaped from. After his escape Gilbert lived in fringe camps with his extended family and Wiradjuri elders. It was here that Gilbert developed his knowledge of Wiradjuri language and culture.

After leaving school at age fourteen Gilbert worked a series of itinerant seasonal jobs until 1957 when he was sentenced to life imprisonment after a domestic dispute in which his wife was killed. While in prison Gilbert studied printmaking and started writing. And in 1968 he wrote ‘The Cherry Pickers’. The first play written in English by an Indigenous Australian as well as the first play performed entirely by an Indigenous Australian cast ‘The Cherry Pickers ’ was nominated for the Captain Cook Memorial Award in 1970 and was highly commended.

After being granted parole in 1971 Gilbert became active in a number of Indigenous Australian human rights causes. In 1971 he joined the Gurindji Lands Right Campaign, the following year in 1972 he helped establish the Aboriginal Tent Embassy at the Old Parliament House in Canberra and in 1979 in the lead up to Australia’s bi-centenary celebrations, he spearheaded the National Aboriginal Government protest on Capital Hill, Canberra, calling for acceptance of, and respect for, Aboriginal sovereignty. Gilbert also chaired the Treaty ’88 campaign for a treaty in 1988 enshrining Indigenous Australian rights and sovereignty and later the year he was awarded the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s Human Rights Award for Literature for editing the Aboriginal poetry anthology ‘Inside Black Australia’. However, he returned the medal citing the ongoing injustice and suffering of his people. In 1992 he was instrumental in re-establishing the Aboriginal Tent Embassy and was awarded a four-year Creative Arts Fellowship for his outstanding artistic contribution to the nation. Gilbert died on the 1st April 1993 aged 59. A memorial for him was held on the 8th April 1993 at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Canberra, during the memorial some of his ashes were placed in the fire.

Posthumously in 1995 he was presented the RAKA poetry award for ‘Black from the Edge’ which was also highly commended in the ACT Book of the Year award and his autobiographical children’s book, ‘Me and Mary Kangaroo’, was shortlisted for the Australian Multicultural Award.

Person TypeIndividual