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Call to raise indigenous actor profiles

John Mangan

15 February 2009 - AARON Pedersen, star of TV cop drama City Homicide and SBS's critically acclaimed The Circuit, has called on the Federal Government to implement affirmative action policies for indigenous Australian actors.

He has told The Sunday Age he has been negotiating with the actors' union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, to ensure Aboriginal actors appear routinely on TV.

"I believe we need to get to a level where every Australian show has to have an indigenous person in it," Pedersen said. "And a mainstream role. Not an indigenous role. A human role. And from within that you get the indigenous experience."

Ernie Dingo played the breakthrough part of Vincent Burunga, performing opposite Cate Blanchett in the 1994 ABC miniseries Heartland, the first TV drama with an Aboriginal hero.

Source: The Age

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