Richard Wilkes went to school at Eden Hill and Mogumber Primary Schools. His father was a member of the Darbalyung Nyoongar community of the Swan River. Wilkes showed an aptitude for writing and won a trip to the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games in an essay competition. Leaving school after grade seven, Wilkes worked for a tin manufacturer for three years then did seasonal work throughout the South-West. He lived and worked for some time in the Western Australian wheatbelt before moving to Perth.
Wilkes, a Nyoongar leader from Perth and a member of the Stolen Generation, was taken away from his father as a boy. Wilkes says 'welfare' took him after they came to tell his father he had not been going to school. He never got a chance tell his father why he hadn't been attending classes. Wilkes has been actively involved in the struggle to assert native title on behalf of the Nyoongar people over the area from Hopetoun in the south to north of Jurien Bay in Western Australia. Federal Court judge Murray Wilcox granted the title in 2003 but the State Government appealed the decision. He has also worked as a welfare officer for the Health Department of Western Australia.
