Bob Bunduwabi - a martyr for his people.mpg

Bob Bunduwabi (Gojok) lost his feet and fingers to leprosy as a young man living in a remote region of the Northern Territory of Australia. In the mid-1950s he was taken to Darwin's East Arm Leprosarium where he stayed until the institution closed in 1982. For the next fourteen years Bob lived in bush camps around Darwin, moving from place to place as he and his friends were evicted by the authorities. By 1996 Bob had extablished a camp at Lee Point, on the city's northern outskirts, where at last he had access to showers and toilets. When the NT Government moved to close the camp, Bob refused to move, saying that he would stay there until he died. He died a martyr on January 22, 1997, resisting eviction to the end. Photo by Bill Day shows Kevin Fry washing Bob Bunduwabi under the public tap at Lee Point - the nearest Bob got to having his own bathroom.

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Nonprofits & Activism

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• Darwin
• Northern
• Territory
• Bill
• Day
• Lee
• Point
• Aboriginal
• homelessness
• Bob
• Bunduwabi
• long
• grass
• people
• Maningrida
• leprosy