Ken Colbung

Kenneth Desmond Colbung, AM, MBE (2 September 1931 – 13 January 2010), also known by his indigenous name Nundjan Djiridjarkan, was an Aboriginal Australian leader who became prominent in the 1960s. He was awarded an MBE and an AM for his service to the Aboriginal community.

Early life

Colbung was born on the Moore River Native Settlement on 2 September 1931. The name Colbung is derived from kalbin, a local Aboriginal term for an Aboriginal high priest. He worked as a stockman while living partially in the bush.

Career

At the age of 21, Colbung joined the Australian Army in 1950, and saw active service in Korea and Japan. He spent 15 years in the Army, working with explosives, serving as a sergeant, finishing school, and learning to box.

After his discharge in 1965, he became active in indigenous Australian politics. He held many senior governmental positions in indigenous affairs, especially those related to the Noongar people. Colbung started the Nyoongah Aboriginal Community College, which is funded by the government of Australia and local governments.

Colbung was perhaps best known for his work in arranging for the discovery and repatriation from London of the head of Yagan, a prominent 19th-century Noongar leader who had been killed by a settler after a bounty was put on him. Colbung arranged for the head to be traced in the 1990s, and was instrumental in political lobbying for its return to Australia in 1997.

He died after a short illness on 12 January 2010. He was 78.^[1]

Honors

• For services to the indigenous Australian community, he was awarded an AM.
• MBE

External links

• Colbung, Ken (1988) "Not Land Rights but Land Rites", AIATSIS Wentworth Lecture 1988

References

1. ^ Prominent Aboriginal elder Ken Colbung dies, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 13 January 2010.

• Colbung, Ken (1996). "About the Author". Yagan: The Swan River "Settlement". Australia Council for the Arts. 
• Woenne, Susan Tod (1979). "Ken Colbung, The Catalyst". In Hunt, Lyall (ed.). Westralian Portraits. Nedlands, Western Australia: University of Western Australia Press. ISBN 0-85564-157-6. 
• Abercrombie, Thomas J. (1982). Grosvenor, Melville Bell (ed.). ed. National Geographic. Washington D.C., United States of America. 

Persondata
Name	Colbung, Ken
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	2 September 1931
Place of birth
Date of death	13 January 2010
Place of death