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Film and TV star Deborah Mailman wins NAIDOC person of the year award

ATSIC

11 July 2003 -One of Australia’s most famous Indigenous actors, Deborah Mailman, has won the coveted NAIDOC Person of the Year award at the national NAIDOC Ball in Hobart tonight.

The acclaimed stage, film and television actress who stars in the Channel 10 program The Secret Life of Us was handed her award in front of an audience of more than 500 guests including the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Philip Ruddock, and ATSIC Chairman Geoff Clark.

Deborah, who is of Aboriginal and Maori heritage, and grew up in Queensland’s Mt Isa, has won many awards during her acting career including a Logie for Most Outstanding Actress and the Australian Film Institute’s Best Actress award for her performance in the film Radiance.

The acknowledgement from her own people by being awarded NAIDOC Person of the Year, however, was of special significance to her.

Ms Mailman’s win was just one of the highlights of the nine national awards made to Indigenous elders, youth, sportspeople, apprentices, scholars and artists.

An ATSIC Chairman’s Special Achievement award was also made to the joint ATSIC, Army and Department of Health and Ageing’s ATSIC-Army Community Assistance Program (AACAP).

Individual winners included NSW’s Rugby League star, David Peachey and Victorian elder William “Uncle Jack” Kennedy, the great grandson of a key member of the 1868 Aboriginal cricket team, Dick-a-Dick.

Moree-based legendary female elder, Mrs Violet French, Western Australian musician and scholar, Frederick Penny, South Australian apprentice, Laurel Dodd, NSW youth, Stacey Kelly-Greenup, and Queensland artist Belynda Waugh, also won national awards.

ATSIC Chairman Geoff Clark said: “Once again the national NAIDOC Awards have highlighted the diversity and excellence of the achievements made by Indigenous peoples around this country.

“The annual NAIDOC week events are a highlight of the national calendar and give all Australians an opportunity to celebrate the survival and advancement of Indigenous culture and heritage.”

NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) began in 1957 to mark an annual national day to celebrate Indigenous peoples and to challenge negative attitudes towards them.

The national NAIDOC Ball is sponsored by ATSIC.

NAIDOC originated from the holding of a “Day of Mourning” on Australia Day in 1938 – the 150th anniversary of the First Fleet landing at Sydney Cove.

Deborah Mailman scoops National Award

11 July 2003 - Indigenous leaders in her home State of Queensland have applauded the announcement tonight of TV star Deborah Mailman as the national Indigenous Person of the Year .

ATSIC Commissioner for Queensland South Ray Robinson said the Indigenous community across the country will be thrilled to hear she’s won the top NAIDOC award from her people.

“Young Deborah is from Mt Isa and grew up out my way in Augathella, and I know her and her family very well.

Commissioner Robinson said her late father, Uncle Wally Mailman was a traditional Bidjara man, and he would be a very proud man tonight.

“This will be a very popular win in the community.

“Deborah’s record speaks for itself. She has won Logies and Best Actress Awards. Her life was also featured in the hit stage play “Black Chicks Talking”.

“She is the modern face of Aboriginal Australia today. But she has never before received an award of similar magnitude from her own people.

“This will mean a lot to her, and her family.

Congratulating her on behalf of ATSIC’s Gulf and Western Queensland Regional Council, Chairman Steve Hirvonen said “ Ms Mailman is a wonderfully talented young indigenous woman who has a great passion for life, her career but also her people and her culture.

“She has a dignity and sense of herself as an Indigenous woman, which she subtly communicates to all Australians on the TV screen and on stage.”

He said winning the premier national NAIDOC award was deserved recognition for her ability, but also for her work ethic and perseverance.

“Deb Mailman has not had it easy. She is a credit to her people, her family and to herself.

“The Mt Isa community would be incredibly proud of her, and we all send her our congratulations” he said.

Person of the Year
Ms Deborah Mailman

The popularity of Deborah Mailman's work on The Secret Life of Us has been recognised with a Logie for Most Outstanding Actress. She has also received the Best Actress award for her work on the series in the Tudawali Indigenous Film and Video Awards. Deborah is no stranger to recognition of her work, having won both the 1998 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress and the Film Critics' Circle of Australia Best Actress Award for her performance in the feature film Radiance. She won a Matilda Award for playing the same character on stage.

Despite all these accolades, however, tonight’s NAIDOC Award as Indigenous Person of the Year, holds a special place in her heart – it is the first award she has won from her own people.

Deborah’s first major production was the Queensland Theatre Company's One Woman's Song, about Aboriginal activist, poet and writer Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Nunukul). Since then, she has worked extensively in Australian theatre and overseas, taking her one-woman show, The 7 Stages of Grieving, to the London International Festival of Theatre and Zurich Arts Festival. Her other theatre credits include The Small Poppies, As You Like It, Capricornia, Murri Love, King Lear, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Summer of the Aliens, The Cherry Pickers, The Taming of the Shrew and Gigi.

Previously Deborah has worked in television on productions such as Inside Out, A Village Called Chardonnay, Coloured Inn, Bondi Banquet and Playschool. She has had roles in the feature films Dear Claudia, The Third Note, The Monkey's Mask and most recently Rabbit Proof Fence.

Deborah is an outstanding role model for young Aboriginal Indigenous women and Indigenous youth. She is the very public face of Aboriginal Australia as seen on our TV screens every week. She has promoted the cause of Aboriginal Australia and particularly Aboriginal women through her acting both on the screen and in the theatre. All of this has gained her the admiration of her people and the arts community. Despite her many successes she is always grounded in her people and her community.

Source: ATSIC

Mailman's message: it's still a secret life for us

By Andrew Darby

12 July 2003 - Deborah Mailman is television's young face of Aboriginal Australia. A good thing? Not at all, says the actress, who laments the scarcity of black faces on screen.

"It's appalling," said The Secret Life of Us star yesterday, as she was named Aborigine of the Year. "Still. In 2003. In commercial television it's ridiculous representation. It's still only Ernie Dingo and I. Two actors."

For Mailman, 31, pure pride took first place as she accepted the indigenous community's top award at the climax of NAIDOC Week. "To get that sort of recognition from the community," she said. "Charles Perkins, [the poet] Oodgeroo Nunukul, Anthony Mundine. I mean, incredible company.

"Maybe over the next couple of days it might dawn on me what I can do with this sort of personal recognition. At this stage it's just such a pat on the back. I'll soak up and enjoy it."

Elevating the public profile of indigenous actors may be one mission. She said a recent survey had shown that Aborigines were still not considered marketable, and there was even a feeling that not many Aborigines existed.

"It's pretty hard to overcome these sort of perceptions. There's still a wall there."

Mailman said she was conscious that she stood on the shoulders of older Aboriginal actors, such as David Gulpilil, Rhoda Roberts and Dingo.

She is best known as Kelly, one of a cool group of friends who supply the drama and humour on Channel Ten's popular weekly series. In the street and out of character, Mailman finds that people who identify her as Kelly tend to give her a hug. "She's a good heart and they seem to respond to that."

Mailman grew up in the tough outback Queensland mining town of Mount Isa. Her Aboriginal father, Wally, and Maori mother, Jane, were respected there. He died recently, but a horse race in his name will be held soon at the Mount Isa races.

She will be back for that, and for the Mount Isa Rodeo. "I'm a wannabe cowboy, like everyone else," she said.

Previously, Mailman has been recognised with AFI and indigenous film awards. She took a one-woman show, Seven Stages of Grieving, to festivals in London and Zurich, but has no great ambition to work overseas.

"It's just such a big ocean out there. And actually, I feel we produce strong enough content here in Australia."

Other NAIDOC award winners this year included sportsperson of the year, to David Peachey of the Cronulla Sharks, and artist of the year, to the self-taught Queenslander Belynda Waugh.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

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