Noonuccal's poetry is inherently political for a variety of reasons. "We Are Going" is a poem that recounts parts of history from an indigenous perspective, particularly the way that colonization in Australia changed the landscape and displaced First Nations people. In the poem, the remaining descendants of an Aboriginal tribe make their way back to their ancestral lands, subdued and silent. A sign allowing for littering half-covers the old bora ground, the site of their ceremonies and gatherings. Later in the poem, various flora and fauna are professed to be gone as a result of colonization. The tribe, too, are "going." The fact that Noonuccal was the first Australian Aboriginal poet (and Aboriginal woman) to publish a collection means that the Australian public had never read anything like this before. In the dominant culture, this history was silenced.
As the speaker in "We Are Going" articulates a collective identity for the tribe, Noonuccal gives voice to the experiences of her people. From thunder to shadow-ghosts, laws of the elders to quiet daybreak, the identities of this specific tribe (and of all the diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples) are not abased or cheapened. Nor are they depicted as a monoculture. Especially when placed in the context of all of Noonuccal's writing, this poem does not seek to finalize one definitive way through which to view Aboriginal people. In this way, the poem responds to dehumanizing narratives that came before it.
In 1964 when We Are Going was published, Noonuccal had already emerged as a prominent political activist. She was the Queensland representative on the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI). She also campaigned for the 1967 referendum amending the Australian Constitution in order to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples as part of the Australian population. In 1972 Noonuccal returned to Minjerribah and established the Noonuccal-Nughie Education and Cultural Centre, which she called Moongalba ("sitting-down place"). There, she developed an education program that taught children about Aboriginal culture and connection with nature. Noonuccal's politics and poetics were intertwined, always with the commitment to express the voices of her people and to advocate for indigenous Australians and for nature.
The poet's name is itself an example of the way she uses writing to reclaim identity. Around the time when she returned her Member of the British Empire award in protest of the treatment of Aboriginal people in 1970, the poet changed her name from Kath Walker to Oodgeroo Noonuccal. 'Oodgeroo' means 'paperbark tree,' referring to her role as an artist and writer. This name also expresses a reciprocal relationship with nature, which provides the material that the poet uses to create art and advocate for indigenous people, flora, and fauna in Australia.
