UNE > News and Events > Browse by article > Singing star presents tonight's Indigenous Memorial lecture

Next Award for accurate eye on Dutch wetlands July 8, 2005  

Previous NERAM spreads an Italian table July 6, 2005 

Singing star presents tonight's Indigenous Memorial lecture

July 07, 2005

cheetham.jpgSoprano, actor and author Deborah Cheetham will deliver this year’s Frank Archibald Memorial Lecture at Armidale Town Hall tonight.
Organised by The University of New England, the lecture honours the memory of revered Aboriginal community member Frank Archibald and has been held annually since 1986.
Ms Cheetham will talk about “Losing my Religion” at the lecture, which is open to the public and starts at 7.30pm.
Ms Cheetham achieved her ambition -- to take opera to a wider audience -- in 2000,when she performed at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games and again in 2003, when she sang the Australian and Argentine anthems with tenor Jose Cura at the opening of the Rugby World Cup.
A niece of renowned Aboriginal singer Jimmy Little, Ms Cheetham hails from Yorta Yorta country in southern NSW. She was taken from her mother as an infant and was reared with a white Baptist family in Sydney.
Music has been a part of her life from a young age; after graduating from the NSW Conservatorium of Music, Ms Cheetham studied at the Julliard School in New York.
She made her international debut in 1997 and has performed in theatres and concert halls in France, the UK, Switzerland, Germany and New Zealand.
She also wrote and performed her own play, “White Baptist ABBA Fan”.
Frank Archibald was renowned for his knowledge and interest in all issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly education.
To honour his memory, the Frank Archibald Memorial Lecture was established for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander speakers who are leading professionals in fields such as education, law, social justice and government.

Previous speakers include Aden Ridgeway, Australia’s only Indigenous Senator in the federal upper house, Magistrate Dr Pat O’Shane and the late Charles Perkins, the first Aboriginal person to become a permanent head of a federal government department.
Supper will be provided at the conclusion of the lecture.
For more information phone Lydia Roberts on 6773 2779.

Posted by Lydia Roberts at July 7, 2005 10:30 AM