Activist Roberta Sykes dead at 67

Aboriginal rights campaigner, author and poet Roberta "Bobbi" Sykes has died at the
age of 67.
The Harvard University graduate died at the weekend, the NSW Aboriginal Land Council
(NSWALC) said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Dr Sykes will be sorely missed by those who knew her and her passing is a sad day
for the Aboriginal rights movement," NSWALC chairwoman Bev Manton said.
Dr Sykes was the first executive secretary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in
Canberra in 1972 and worked as an adviser in Aboriginal health and education.
In the 1980s she became the first black Australian to attend Harvard University,
gaining a PhD in education, and in 1994 she was awarded the Australian Human Rights
Medal.
"She was a strong, amazing person who was fair dinkum," Shane Phillips, a community
member of The Block, in inner-Sydney Redfern, told AAP.
"I know her determination and her passion for our people and what is right is one
thing Roberta Sykes fought hard for."
Mr Phillips, who grew up in Redfern, said Dr Sykes knew his family.
"I grew up in Redfern and knew her and she knew my family and she was one of the
elders of our community in the Redfern area," said Mr Phillips.
"She worked all around here and had a great reputation.
"She was always representing our community, whatever she applied herself to, there
was plenty of passion and belief in strong Aboriginal people.
"She was heavily involved in a lot of community stuff and I personally saw some of
the great things that she did."
Mr Phillips said Dr Sykes was working on a book at the time of her death.
"She's a great person and she should be recognised," he said.
"She was very opinionated, she spoke her mind and that's one thing I admired about
her because no matter what, she gave her opinion of it and she always tried to be
objective about it."
Ms Manton said Dr Sykes would be remembered for her writing as well as her passion
for human rights.
"Dr Sykes was not only a renowned author and poet, but also a prominent and tireless
campaigner for Aboriginal rights," she said.
"The New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council would like to express its condolences
to the family of Dr Sykes."
Born in Townsville, North Queensland, in 1944, Dr Sykes grew up as Roberta Patterson
with her white mother and two younger sisters, one also black and the other paler
with Asian features.
She stepped into the public domain as an afro-wearing Aboriginal activist known as
Bobbi, when she was arrested at the Aboriginal tent embassy outside Canberra's
Parliament House in 1972.
She penned the three-part autobiography Snake Cradle (1997), Snake Dancing (1998)
and Snake Circle (2000), in which she revealed details about being pack-raped by
white men, the resulting birth of her son when she was 17 and the trial of her
attackers.
"Without vocal chords, in pain the snake rears back and opens its mouth to cry in
complete silence, and its agony is only apparent to those who know it well," she
wrote in Snake Dancing.
Mick Mundine, chief executive of the Aboriginal Housing Company in Redfern, said Dr
Sykes had paved the way for organisations like his.
"She did a lot for the Aboriginal community," Mr Mundine, brother of champion boxer
Tony, told AAP.
"For anybody to get arrested at the Tent Embassy, a lot of credit goes to her. She
was a pretty staunch lady.
"Anybody who fought for what they believed in and stuck to their principles then,
that's why we have what we've got today.
"We wouldn't still be around with all our organisations if it weren't for those
people."
Mr Mundine said he had met Dr Sykes a few times and she was well respected in the
Redfern community.
"She was a good person, she had a good attitude, she was a really caring, sharing
sort of lady," he said.
"She was very well respected around the Redfern community and she was very
effective, very professional in her field and at what she did."