He was involved in the fight for Aboriginal rights in Australia and travelled the world speaking about cultural lore, health and healing.
[1] Bobby was born in 1947, the oldest of 6 kids, and a descendant of the Jaimathang, Gunai Kurnai, Monero, Wandandian, and Yuin people[2] from south eastern Australia.
His mother, Isabelle, was active in the Worragee-Wreck Bay chapter of the Country Women's Association and the local Baptist church.
[3] After being released from jail, Bobby lived at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on the lawns of parliament house in Canberra.
On 28 February 1974, he achieved some notoriety when he "arrested" Francis Herbert Moy, an assistant secretary of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA), at gunpoint.
[5] Bobby had gone into the DAA office with Reuben John Smith[4] and Neville Foster,[6] looking for the department head, Barrie Dexter, who was away in Tasmania at the time.
[9] After that, Bobby left Canberra for Melbourne, where he played with a group called the Kooriers with Paul and Dudley (aka Doug) Meredith, a couple of musicians from Cherbourg in Queensland.
According to Bobby, the Kooriers music expressed "the confusion and frustration of Aborigines and their cultural dilemma which came as a result of westernisation".
[3] In 1990, Bobby, along with Vic Simms, Roger Knox and the Euraba band were invited to North America by Indigenous Americans, to play prisons and reservations.
Talking about the change of mood from his previous album, Bobby said "[......] if you sing about the sorrow of things, it sort of keeps people in that sadness.
[10] In the early 1990s, he started the Doonooch dance group,[11] primarily as a way to keep young Aboriginal people away from alcohol and other drugs and provide them with gainful employment and a cultural and spiritual awakening.
[12] In 2002 Bobby McLeod co-taught, along with Dr. Tom Balistrieri, an engineering class at Worcester Polytechnic Institute titled, Indigenous Wisdom and Modern Technology.