Kenneth (Ken) Colbung

Kenneth Desmond 'Ken' Colbung was born on 2 September 1931 at the Moore River Native Settlement, south-west of Moora, Western Australia. He belonged to the Bibbulman people in the South West region. His mother was a descendant of Coolbun, a leader of the King George Sound people near Albany and Djiri Djarkan from Warren River. His unknown father was a White man allegedly from Fremantle.

Also known by his bush name Nundjan Djiridjarkan, Ken referred to himself as a 'desert Aboriginal'. He recalled a carefree childhood at Moore River, never sleeping in a bed until he moved to Perth.

Ken's mother passed away when he was a baby, so he lived at Moore River with his auntie in a community he considered family. However, the settlement of over 50 families had a reputation for being a hostile environment. The buildings were infested with rats, and fights often broke out in the dormitories.

The old people still lived in gunyahs. The boys and girls slept in dormitories, like a barracks, with dirt floors. Once a fortnight we got food handouts. The rest we had to get by hunting ... We never thought about the future. We didn't know what our future would be, what the Government would do with us.

[Ken Colbung interview, 1969 'THE "FANTASTIC BLOKE" HAS PLANS FOR HIS PEOPLE', The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), 24 September, p 43]

This was a period when the state's Chief Protector of Aborigines controlled the lives of First Nations people under the Aborigines 1905 Act (WA). When he was 6 or 7, Ken was removed from his auntie and sent to Sister Kate's Children's Cottage Home in Perth. The boys at the orphanage were trained for farming and gardening, and the girls for domestic work. Ken was one of a few of the Sister Kate's children who attended the local state school, which was rare for Aboriginal children in the 1930s.

When World War II broke out, Australians feared a Japanese invasion. Ken and other children from Sister Kate's were evacuated to Greenbushes near Bunbury.

Under wartime manpower regulations, the Native Welfare Department sent Ken north to Meekatharra when he was 13. He learnt to ride and break-in horses at Landor Station. For 6 years, he worked as a farm labourer and drover across the state's northern districts of Gascoyne, Murchison and the Pilbara. Ken later attributed discovering his Aboriginality at this time. Despite having a White father, he was treated as a ‘blackfellow' everywhere he went.

Korean War

By 1950, Ken wanted to learn a trade, so he enlisted in the Australian Army. He was 19.

In the Army, Ken became a successful middleweight boxing champion and a good rugby player. He was well-liked for his natural warmth and good humour. Apart from ‘occasional barrack-room jibes', Ken felt race was irrelevant in the Army: 'I was a number not an Aborigine'.

The Army also provided something denied to him as an Aboriginal teenager. He received an education that helped build his confidence as a future leader. Ken trained as an engineer because he had experience with farm tractors.

Ken spent about 8 months training with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (2RAR), at Pukapunyal in Victoria. Then Ken was deployed to Japan with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR). He served as a Guard Commander at Ebisu Camp, the main military base. 3RAR was part of the Australian contingent serving with the post-war multi-national British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF), which operated in Japan from 1946 to 1952.

In response to the North Korean invasion of South Korea, the BCOF was committed to service in the Korean War. Australia deployed many personnel from Japan to South Korea. Along with well-known veteran Reginald Saunders, Ken was among a group of fewer than 40 First Nations personnel who served in Japan. (Ken published a heartfelt message in The Canberra Times when Reg passed away in 1990.)

3RAR received its deployment orders for South Korea on 25 August 1950. After disembarking at Pusan, the men boarded a train north to Ŭijŏngbu. Here Ken recalled having his first 'shock reaction' to the effects of war on humanity.

... the sound of war, is nothing. It's the sound of humanity that's involved in war that's probably more deadly than any bullet.

[Private Kenneth Colbung, Royal Australian Infantry Corp, interviewed by Bill Bunbury]

The cries from displaced women and children being looked after by the Australian Salvation Army left a lasting impression on Ken. He witnessed young children committing atrocities against one another while competing for food, soap and cigarettes.

As a Bibbulmun man who grew up in the 'bush' with a strong connection to the land, Ken found the devastation of war on the Korean landscape difficult to overlook.

From October 1951 until the ceasefire in July 1953, 3RAR patrolled the no-man's land between the 2 opposing trench lines. Ken and his fellow soldiers conducted trench raids, patrols and reconnaissance.

Living conditions for the Australian soldiers in Korea were harsh. During winter, temperatures were well below freezing, causing health issues like frostbite and trench foot. Summers were accompanied by high humidity and heavy rains, often flooding the trenches.

Ken served in the Australian Army until around 1965, attaining the rank of Sergeant. After discharge, he joined the newly formed Royal Australian Engineers Reserves (RAER).

As Ken Colbung ... once said to me: ‘It was the time that I was an equal. I was treated the same as all the others. There was no difference in skin colour – it was about being a comrade and a fellow in arms.'

[Kenneth George Wyatt AM, then Member of the Australian Parliament for Hasluck, Australian Parliament, 13 May 2015]

Life after service

Ken was among the many First Nations veterans who did not receive the same recognition as other veterans. In the years following his return from the Korean War, Indigenous veterans faced discrimination from Australian laws. For example, Ken was refused service in a hotel bar during a trip to Adelaide. It took until the late 1960s for civil rights changes to begin.

Returning to civilian life outside the Army was a hard transition for Ken. Alongside racial prejudice, he struggled with alcohol abuse. More than 50 years later, he recalled the psychological challenges and war trauma:

I saw some pretty heavy duty fighting, but as a soldier you don't talk about it, you just get drunk. In a time of war you survive by putting the bad things to one side and trying not to think about them ...

[Private Kenneth Colbung, Royal Australian Infantry Corp, interviewed by Bill Bunbury]

Not long after he discharged from the Army, Ken met Betty May Ridgeway (nee Beale). She was a Kamilaroi woman from Quirindi in New South Wales. Betty had 5 young children from her previous marriage, who Ken loved as his own. Ken and Betty had a daughter, Esandra, in 1970. He recalled how his family with Betty helped him through some of his darkest times. Betty supported Ken as an advocate for First Nations people. They attended the first meeting of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs and were elected to the executive.

Ken then became Convener of Aboriginal Opinions for the Aboriginal Education Council, a trustee of Kirinari, accommodation for Aboriginal students. He continued to advocate for civil rights, involving himself in the Australian Black Power movement. As a respected Noongar Elder of the Bibulmun people, he quickly became a First Nations leader in Western Australia. He was a popular guest speaker known for his views on discrimination, land rights, cultural heritage and government policy affecting First Nations people.

In 1969, Ken took over management of the Aboriginal Centre in Beaufort Street, Mount Lawley, from activist and poet Jack Davis, brother of Indigenous veteran Harold Davis.

During this time, Ken worked several jobs. He was well-known amongst his peers for passionate, hard work, taking on extra projects to support the community. A plant controller who worked with Ken at a large concrete-making firm recalled his impressions:

He's an absolutely wonderful man. He always had some project going. Take that pre-school he organised at Green Valley, where he lives. That was for the white children, as well as the black ... And the Homework Centre he organised for kids that need help with their homework and can't get it from their parents. And a whole lot more. He was always working. He's a fantastic bloke, beyond compare, interested in everything and every-one.

['THE "FANTASTIC BLOKE" HAS PLANS FOR HIS PEOPLE', The Australian Women's Weekly, 24 September 1969, p 43]

Alongside Indigenous veteran and activist James Brennan, Ken was instrumental in developing the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972. This governed the protection of Indigenous Heritage sites of significance in Western Australia.

Ken was on many committees to progress Indigenous rights later in life. In recognition of his efforts, he became an Honorary Fellow of the Western Australian Museum in 1976. He became a Member of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1980, the same year he became a Justice of the Peace (JP).He became a Member of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1982. He also became a marriage celebrant in 1985.

In 1984, Ken was elected Council member and first Indigenous chair of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). He was the first Aboriginal person to hold the position. Cherishing the role and the AIATSIS vision for all First Nations peoples and their stories, Ken remained at AIATSIS until 1990.

Alongside political activism, Ken spent over 20 years searching for his ancestor's remains, the Noongar leader and resistance fighter Yagan. Having been held in a British museum for some years and then buried in a nearby cemetery, the severed head of Yagan was finally repatriated by Ken in 1997 and reburied in the Swan Valley in 2010.

In 2003, Ken played The Last Post and Rouse on the didgeridoo along with buglers at the Fremantle Dockers' annual Len Hall Tribute Game. The AFL match honoured all First Nations personnel in the Australian Defence Force. That same year, a short stay in hospital with pneumonia forced Ken to miss some engagements. This was the first time, for example, he had missed a meeting of the Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee since its inception in 1979.

Ken was a foundation member of the Western Australian Museum Aboriginal Advisory Committee and served on the committee for over 30 years. In 2010, he was appointed as a Fellow of the Western Australian Museum, acknowledging his commitment to Aboriginal heritage values.

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After a short illness, Ken passed away on 13 January 2010 at Joondalup Health Campus. He was survived by his second wife, his children and grandchildren. Ken's funeral was attended by hundreds of mourners at Pinnaroo Valley Memorial Park in Padbury.

Vietnam veteran and friend of Ken, Jim Duffield, recalled Ken's passion and commitment to serving his country, not just in wartime service but through Indigenous activism:

Ken, I see a huge man because it's all right thinking about standing tall now when the work has been done. Ken was one of the people who had the speed and the pick of a sapper and he did the digging and he did the hard yards.

[Jim Duffield interviewed by John McBain, 'Ken Colbung Service: interview with Jim Duffield', 23 January 2010]