Time is Running Out, Oodgeroo Noonuccal
As a child in the early 70s, I found poetry anthology My People by Kath Walker in my school library. First publishing in 1964 she was Australia’s first published Aboriginal poet.
Little did I know, 30 years later I would find myself living on the island many know as North Stradbroke Island and the homelands of the Walker family.
I have had the great privilege of working with members of the Walker family by way of Lines in the Sand environmental arts festivals 2009-2014 and since living on the island.
Oodgeroo Noonuccal poem Time is Running Out included in My People, is part of the installation work and projections in exhibitions Islands of Innocence, Rejuvenating Spirit of the Land and Singing Up Spirit of the Land. Permission to reproduce this poem in the context of this projection is provided by Raymond Walker eldest grandson of Oodgeroo of the Tribe Noonuccal and audio recording of Oodgeroo’s friend Uncle Bob Anderson reciting the poem;
“Come gentle black man
Show your strength;Time to make a stand.
Make the violent miner feel
Your violent
Love of Land”.
Following are some images from my image archive.
Raymond singing at the launch of Art + Ecology/Culture + Country book launch for Lines in the Sand and curator Jo Fay Duncan in 2011 at Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Art 
Yulu Burri Ba Aboriginal Dancers at the Point Lookout Hall c2012 
Raymond Walker singing at the North Stradbroke Island Museum on Minjerribah in front of his grandmothers drawing of Rainbow Serpent 2012 
Craig Tapp and Raymond Walker at Stone Water and Living Earth exhibition at Redland Art Gallery 2015 co-curated by JoFayDuncan 
Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s anthology My People 
Josh Walker conducting a Jandal Language Workshop at Quandamooka Celebrating and Sharing Culture festival 2011