Tudawali << TUHD uh wah lee >>, Robert (1929?-1967), became the first Australian Aboriginal motion-picture star. He was also an advocate for Australian Aboriginal rights.
Tudawali was born on Melville Island in the Northern Territory. His date of birth is uncertain, but most sources indicate he was born about 1929. Tudawali’s parents were members of the Tiwi Australian Aboriginal group. In the late 1930’s, Tudawali moved with his family to Darwin, the administrative center of the Northern Territory. He obtained a basic education at the Native Affairs Branch School at the Kahlin compound in Darwin.
Tudawali worked at a number of low-level jobs before he was discovered by the Australian director and producer Charles Chauvel and his wife, the Australian screenwriter Elsa Chauvel. The Chauvels chose him to portray Marbuck, an outlawed Aboriginal man who challenges the white world in the motion picture Jedda (1955). In the film, Marbuck kidnaps and seduces Jedda, a young Aboriginal woman adopted as a child by a white ranching family. Marbuck brings Jedda back to his tribal land, only to be rejected by his people for breaking their marriage traditions. The film was the first to star two Aboriginal actors and the first Australian feature film to be shot in color. Tudawali was a sensation, and the film became a success. The film was nominated for the Palme d’Or, the highest prize at the Cannes Festival.
Tudawali also starred as an Aboriginal man wanted for a tribal killing in the mystery Dust in the Sun (1958). In 1961, he starred in the made-for-television movie drama Burst of Summer and in the Australian Western television series “Whiplash.”
In 1966, Tudawali was elected vice president of the Northern Territory Council for Aboriginal Rights. He died on July 26, 1967. Tudawali was portrayed by the Aboriginal actor Ernie Dingo in the 1988 Australian made-for-TV biographical picture Tudawali.
The Tudawali Award, which was presented every two years from 1994 to 2011, was named for the actor and activist. It was awarded to individuals who made a significant contribution to the development of Indigenous media or the creation of a landmark body of work in film and television. The award was sponsored by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies.
