| Kevin Gilbert | |
|---|---|
 Author Kevin Gilbert |
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| Born | Kevin Gilbert July 10, 1933 Condobolin, New South Wales |
| Died | April 1, 1993 |
| Occupation | Writer, Poet |
| Notable work(s) | 'Living Black: Blacks Talk to Kevin Gilbert' |
| Notable award(s) | The National Book Council 1977 |
Kevin Gilbert (10 July 1933 - 1 April 1993) was a 20th century Indigenous Australian activist, artist, poet and winner of the National Book Council prize for writers.
Kevin Gilbert was born into the Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi nations in Condobolin, New South Wales and was raised by his maternal grandmother on an Aboriginal reserve. He left school at the age of fourteen and picked up various seasonal and short-term itinerate jobs. He was convicted in 1957 over the death of his wife during an argument and received a life sentence. Despite the harsh and brutal conditions of gaol life he learned printmaking and began writing.
Gilbert wrote the play The Cherry Pickers in 1968 and first exhibited his artwork in 1970 at the Arts Council Gallery, Sydney, in an exhibition organised by the Australia Council. He was granted parole in 1971.
During the 1970s Gilbert became involved in numerous Indigenous human rights causes. Most notably he helped establish the Aboriginal Tent Embassy at (old) Parliament house in Canberra in 1972.
He wrote 'Because a White Man'll Never Do It' in 1973. The National Book Council awarded his book 'Living Black: Blacks Talk to Kevin Gilbert' (published in 1977) its Book Award in 1978. The interviewees included the late musician and dancer Robert Jabanungga.
In the leadup to Australia's bi-centenary celebrations, Gilbert was chairperson of Treaty '88, which campaigned for a treaty enshrining Aboriginal rights and sovereignty. In that 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. He returned the medal citing the ongoing injustice and suffering of his people. Gilbert continued writing and exhibiting his artwork.
Kevin Gilbert died in 1993. He is survived by six children and numerous grand and great-grandchildren.
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Poetry for his people
Particularly in his early verse, Gilbert uses the poetry as an apologia in respect to his own life whilst challenging the morality of the wider society as in Think (1971)
My father was white
He killed his wife
She was a half-caste
She was my mother
I am a half-caste
I killed a white
She was my wife
I stay on my
side of the coin
you on the other
When it spins
into the air
next time
who will come
out on top?
Bibliography
Poetry
- End of Dreamtime (Island Press, 1971)
- People are Legends (UQP, 1978)
Non-fiction
- Living Black: Blacks Talk to Kevin Gilbert
- Because a White Man'll Never Do It
- Black from the Edge
Edited
- Inside Black Australia
For children
- Me and Mary Kangaroo (1995?)
External links
- Kevin John Gilbert home page, has images of his art-work
References
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