Roberta "Bobbi" Sykes (16 August 194314 November 2010) was an Australian poet and author. She was a lifelong campaigner for Indigenous land rights, as well as human rights and women's rights.
Early life and education
Born Roberta Barkley Patterson in Townsville, Queensland, sometime in the 1940s, Sykes was raised by her white mother, Rachel Patterson, and never knew her father. Sykes says in her autobiography that his identity is unknown, and her mother told her a number of different accounts about him; variously that he was Fijian, Papuan, African American, and Native American. The most consistent and plausible version was that he was an African American soldier stationed in Australia during World War II.
Although she fought hard for Australian Aboriginal rights, she herself was not of Australian Aboriginal descent. She was sometimes criticised for not correcting the record when others assumed she was Aboriginal.
During the 1970s Sykes, along with Sue Chilly (also spelt Chilli), Marcia Langton, and Naomi Mayers, formed the Black Women's Action (BWA) group, which later evolved into the Roberta Sykes Foundation.
She was involved in the creation and early development of the Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service, the National Black Theatre in Redfern, and in the setting up of Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre in Glebe, which later became NAISDA, which nurtured Bangarra Dance Theatre.
Poetry
Sykes's early poetry was published in 1979 in the book Love Poems and Other Revolutionary Actions. The first edition was limited to a thousand copies (with the first 300 numbered and signed). A mass-market edition was published in 1988. Her second volume of poetry was published in 1996. In 1981 she ghosted the autobiography of Mum (Shirl) Smith, an Aboriginal Australian social worker in New South Wales.
Harvard and later activism
Sykes received a PhD in education from Harvard University in 1983
She returned to Australia, where she took over running the BWA.
Roberta Sykes Foundation
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During the 1970s Sykes, along with Sue Chilly (often spelt Chilli; from Brisbane), Marcia Langton, and Naomi Mayers, formed the Black Women's Action (BWA) group, which later evolved into the Roberta Sykes Foundation.
BWA started publishing a monthly community newspaper for Aboriginal people, Koori Bina, also spelt Koori-Bina (meaning "black ears"; also translated as "listen up"). Aboriginal journalist John Newfong, already established in mainstream media and inaugural editor and principal writer of quarterly magazine Identity (1971–1982) was also involved. The paper raised awareness of biased coverage of Indigenous issues in mainstream Australian media, and covered Aboriginal unemployment, health issues, and land rights, but struggled on minimal funding, relying on donations to keep going. It was later described as a "hard-hitting, staunchly political newspaper". It criticised cuts to funding that affected Aboriginal organisations and the Fraser government's plans to dismantle Medibank. Along with other Indigenous publications, it covered stories in detail that were not found, or only superficially covered, in mainstream media, such as Aboriginal housing.
Students at Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre were taught publishing and writing skills to produce the newspaper, which eventually led to their assuming responsibility for its publication. The journal ran from June 1976 to June 1979, before running out of funds. A new magazine, AIM (Aboriginal and Islander Message or Aboriginal-Islander-Message), by Jack Patten (co-founder of the Aborigines Progressive Association) and Percy Reginald Stephensen. She also wrote: "the experience of producing those newspapers within a hostile white environment... because it has the power and resources, has historically defined us".
BWA expanded its scope over time, and started funding small enterprises established by Aboriginal women. In 1979 it raised funds to pay for Sykes to study at Harvard University, where she became the first Aboriginal woman to graduate from an American university. It contributed to several other Black women's educational goals, including Norma Ingram and MaryAnn Bin-Sallik, who both attended Harvard too. BWA played a crucial part in raising public awareness and funds to enable Mum Shirl to pay off the mortgage on her house she was in danger of losing, after giving so much to others throughout her life.