Denis Walker (activist)

{{Infobox person

| name = Denis Walker

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1947|12|02|df=yes}}

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2017|12|04|1947|12|02|df=yes}}

| other_names = Bejam Kunmunara Jarlow Nunukel Kabool

}}

Denis P. Walker (2 December 1947 – 4 December 2017), also known as Bejam Kunmunara Jarlow Nunukel Kabool, was an Aboriginal Australian activist. He was a major figure in the civil rights and land rights movements of the 1970s and continued to fight for a treaty between the Australian Government and Aboriginal nations through the 1990s and until his death.

Early life and family

Denis Walker was born in 1947.{{Citation | url = http://indigenousrights.net.au/people/pagination/denis_walker | title =Denis Walker | work = Collaborating for Indigenous Rights 1957–1973 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200308153049/https://indigenousrights.net.au/people/pagination/denis_walker| archive-date= 8 March 2020| publisher = National Museum of Australia | access-date = July 31, 2014}} He was the son of Bruce Walker and poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker) from Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island, Southern Queensland) , who wrote a poem about him called "Son of Mine". He was also known as "Bejam". He had two younger brothers; Robert Corowa,{{cite web |last=Thorpe |first=Nakari |date=11 December 2017 |title=Denis Walker: Australia's Black Panther, a warrior until the end |url=https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/denis-walker-australias-black-panther-a-warrior-until-the-end/66o62wtte |access-date=8 December 2022 |website=NITV}} who later became involved with the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in 2019,{{cite web |last=Gregoire |first=Paul |date=1 March 2019 |title=For the Crime of Genocide: An Interview With the Aboriginal Tent Embassy’s Robert Corowa |url=https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/for-the-crime-of-genocide-an-interview-with-the-aboriginal-tent-embassys-robert-corowa/ |access-date=8 December 2022 |website=Sydney Criminal Lawyers}} and Vivian Walker (1953–1991), a dramatist.{{cite web | title=Kabul Oodgeroo Noonuccal, 1953- | website=Fryer Library Manuscripts | date= 19 February 2020 | url=https://manuscripts.library.uq.edu.au/index.php/kabul-oodgeroo-noonuccal-1953 | access-date=8 August 2022}}{{cite web | title=Kabul Oodgeroo Noonuccal | website=AustLit | date= 23 July 2014 | url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A26682 | access-date=8 August 2022}}

Activism

He co-founded, with Sam Watson, the Brisbane chapter of the Australian Black Panther Party (ABPP) on 8 January 1972. At the time, Walker declared the Black Panther Party (BPP) to be "the vanguard for all depressed people, and in Australia the Aboriginals are the most depressed of all".

Walker's stance on political violence was similar to the stance taken by other Black Panther parties and BPP-derived movements around the world. In a directive to members of the ABPP he said that "members must learn to use and service weapons correctly". In January 1972, having himself been in court only a few days beforehand on the charge of possessing a concealable firearm, he told reporters that "if you haven't got a gun, you have nothing. We're not going to get what we want by standing here and talking." The following March, in an address to the student union of Melbourne University, he contrasted the Australian BPP's position with that of the American BPP, saying that the Australian BPP's priority was not violent revolution, and that its focus was land rights rather than urban issues. As such, he asserted that the Australian BPP was prepared to use guns to back Aboriginal action over land rights, arguing that Aboriginal people should have the right to carry guns for self-defence.

Walker contributed to Identity magazine (1971–1982).{{cite web | title=Identity Magazine - Institution | website=Reason in Revolt | date=23 August 2005 | url=https://www.reasoninrevolt.net.au/biogs/E000301b.htm | access-date=30 September 2022}}

Walker was one of the "Brisbane Three": he faced charges of conspiracy against the state in Brisbane, along with Lionel Fogarty and Chilean national John Garcia.{{cite interview | title=‘The Rally Is Calling’: Dashiell Moore Interviews Lionel Fogarty|first=Lionel |last=Fogarty|interviewer-first=Dashiell|interviewer-last= Moore | website=Cordite Poetry Review | date=31 January 2019 | url=http://cordite.org.au/interviews/rally-moore-fogarty/ |p=1| access-date=1 October 2022}}{{cite web | title=Buchanan, Cheryl (1955– ) | website=The Australian Women's Register| first1=Leonarda |last1= Kovacic |first2= Barbara |last2=Lemon | date=12 Feb 2019|others= First created 27 July 2005 | url=https://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE1255b.htm | access-date=1 October 2022}}{{cite web | title=Committee for the Defence of the Brisbane Three: Ephemera | website=Fryer Library Manuscripts| publisher=University of Queensland | url=https://manuscripts.library.uq.edu.au/index.php/fvf61 | access-date=1 October 2022}} The charges, which had been laid by then premier of Queensland Joh Bjelke-Petersen's Special Branch{{cite web | last=McIlroy | first=Jim | title=Vale Denis Walker, Aboriginal freedom fighter | website=Green Left | date=18 January 2018 | url=https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/vale-denis-walker-aboriginal-freedom-fighter | access-date=1 October 2022}} in 1974, were on various offences relating to an alleged plot to "kidnap" Jim Varghese, students' union president at the University of Queensland. Cheryl Buchanan, who was director of the Black Resource Centre, which had moved from Melbourne to Brisbane, was involved in the defence and ultimate acquittal.

In October 1981, Walker was nominated for the elections to the National Aboriginal Conference, but was disqualified because at the time he was serving a two-year jail sentence for wounding a Department of Aboriginal Affairs official in Brisbane in 1979.

In 1992 Walker argued that white Australian law had no jurisdiction over Aboriginal Australians.{{cn|date=September 2022}}

Walker continued to fight for a treaty between the Australian Government and Aboriginal nations through the 1990s and until his death.

Later life and death

He was later known as Bejam Kunmunara Jarlow Nunukel Kabool.{{cite web | title=Bejam Kunmunara Jarlow Nunukel Kabool | website=AustLit | date=4 December 2017 | url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A4424 | access-date=9 February 2023}}

He died on 4 December 2017.

References

{{cite news|title=Indigenous activist's long struggle for justice|date=1993-11-17|author=Sam Watson|url=http://greenleft.org.au/2004/599/31747|work=Green Left Weekly|access-date=2009-09-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081121153326/http://www.greenleft.org.au/2004/599/31747|archive-date=2008-11-21|url-status=dead}}

{{cite book|title=Liberation, imagination, and the Black Panther Party: a new look at the Panthers and their legacy|series=political science reader series|author=Kathleen Cleaver and George N. Katsiaficas|publisher=Routledge|year=2001|isbn=0-415-92783-8|id={{ISBN|9780415927833}}|pages=24–25}}

{{cite news|title=Aboriginal leader in court on gun charge|work=Sydney Morning Herald|date=1972-01-06|pages=2}}

{{cite news|title=Aborigines seeking black power|work=Boca Raton News|date=1972-01-16|pages=19}}

{{cite news|title=Blacks 'ready to use guns'|work=The Age|date=1972-03-01|pages=6}}

{{cite news|title=Poll ban on jailed black|work=The Age|date=1981-10-01|pages=19}}

External links

[http://radicaltimes.info/HTML/popup507d2.html Denis Walker and Sam Watson discuss aspects of the Black Movement from the 1960s onwards...] (Video, 58 mins) Recorded 6 February 2006, for the Taking To The Streets exhibition in Brisbane Town Hall, presented by the Museum of Brisbane.

Category:1946 births

Category:2017 deaths

Category:Australian indigenous rights activists