[1] Sykes was expelled from St Patricks College at age 14 and, after a succession of jobs, including a nurse's assistant at the Townsville General Hospital from 1959 to 1960, she moved to Brisbane and then to Sydney in the early to mid-1960s, where she worked as a striptease dancer at the notorious Pink Pussycat Club in Kings Cross under the stage name of "Opal Stone".

[5] Sykes received a PhD in education from Harvard University in 1983[4] or 1984, after Black Women's Action raised funds to cover her expenses to study there in 1979.

[3] BWA started publishing a monthly community newspaper for Aboriginal people, Koori Bina, also spelt Koori-Bina (meaning "black ears";[10] also translated as "listen up"[11]).

[3][12][13] Aboriginal journalist John Newfong, already established in mainstream media and inaugural editor and principal writer of quarterly magazine Identity (1971–1982)[14][15] was also involved.

[18] 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.

[17] It was more moderate in tone than its predecessor, but did publish political stories challenging government policy, such as the powers given to ASIO over Aboriginal campaigners.

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.

Langton, Rob Bryant (later co-founder of Bangarra), Jackie Huggins, Jilpia Jones, Brian Syron and Lili Tuwai became trustees of the foundation.

Funds to assist Aboriginal students to achieve goals were raised mainly through small individual donations and community fundraising events.

RSIEF has continues Sykes' work, supporting a number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to undertaking postgraduate study overseas.