Full Name Robert Tudawali Movies Jedda, Dust in the Sun Role Film actor | Name Robert Tudawali Resting place Darwin cemetery | |
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Born 1929 (age 37–38) , Melville Island, Northern Territory Cause of death Severe burns and tuberculosis Died 26 July 1967 (aged 37–38) Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia Nationality Australian Similar Rosalie Kunoth Monks, Ken Wayne, Lee Robinson (director) | ||
Ernie Dingo in "Tudawali"
Robert Tudawali (1929 – 26 July 1967) also known as Bobby Wilson was an Australian actor and indigenous activist, born and raised on Melville Island in the Northern Territory to Tiwi parents.
Contents
- Ernie Dingo in Tudawali
- JEDDA The Uncivilized CHARLES CHAUVEL Rare Original Movie Posters Australian Aboriginal Film
- Biography
- Personal life
- Feature Film
- Filmography
- References
JEDDA The Uncivilized CHARLES CHAUVEL Rare Original Movie Posters Australian Aboriginal Film
Biography
Although he had only a rudimentary education in Kahlin, at the Native Affairs Branch, Tudawali attained a rich English vocabulary. He was the leading Australian rules footballer as a youth, and he alternated several times between Aboriginal and white society. Tudawali used the name Bobby Wilson in Darwin when he travelled there by canoe in the late 1930s, which was the surname of his father's employer. He was an orderly with the Royal Australian Air Force and worked briefly in an army store and mechanical workshop, also serving as a waiter before becoming an actor.
He became the first Aboriginal film star as a result of playing the lead role, Marbuck, in the 1955 Australian film Jedda. Tudawali played the role of Emu Foot in the 1958 movie Dust in the Sun, a mystery film adapted from the novel Justin Bayard by Jon Cleary and produced by the team of Lee Robinson and Chips Rafferty. Under the name Bobby Wilson, he took part in various episodes of the 1960 TV series Whiplash. Tudawali also featured in the ABC television play, Burst of Summer, in 1961.
Tudawali served as Vice-President of the Northern Territory Council for Aboriginal Rights in 1966 and, working with trade unionists and author Frank Hardy, fought to highlight the poor wages and conditions of Aboriginal stockmen in the Northern Territory, which culminated in the Wave Hill walk off in 1966. Tudawali had organised to give a series of talks to unionists throughout Australia in support of the stockmen when the Northern Territory administration banned any travel by Tudawali due to the tuberculosis he was suffering at the time.
Personal life
Tudawali was married to Peggy Wogait in 1948 and they lived at the Bagot Native Settlement, later he married a women named Nancy. Tudawali died of tuberculosis and severe burns at Darwin Hospital on 26 July 1967 following an incident on Bagot community, Darwin, when an argument broke out when he refused to offer his 11-year-old daughter Christine for marriage, his funeral took place at Nightcliffe, Northern Territory
Feature Film
In 1987, Steve Jodrell directed Tudawali, a made for television docu-drama about Robert Tudawali, with Ernie Dingo in the title role.
