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Multi-talented performer to give Archibald Lecture

July 04, 2006

Tovey.thumb.jpgThe multi-talented Aboriginal performer Noel Tovey will give the 2006 Frank Archibald Memorial Lecture at the Armidale Town Hall this week. The lecture, including supper, will begin at 7.30pm on Thursday 6 July.

Mr Tovey (pictured here) is an internationally renowned actor, director, choreographer and author, with more than 50 years’ experience as a professional in the visual and performing arts.

After starting out as a dancer and actor in Australia, he left for Europe in 1960 to work in London’s West End. He subsequently worked as a performer, director and choreographer in Europe, South Africa and Australia.

In his recently published memoir, Little Black Bastard: A Story of Survival, Mr Tovey wrote about his abusive upbringing and life as a street kid, his determination as a young performer that led to recognition in Europe, and his return to Australia in 1990 as a leading Indigenous theatre director and performer.

Mr Tovey founded and taught the performing arts course for the Eora Aboriginal College of Visual and Performing Arts in Redfern, and has been a member of many arts organisations, including the Australia Council for the Arts.

Some of the highlights of his career include directing all-Aboriginal casts in productions of The Aboriginal Protestors, which he staged in Sydney and Germany, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for the Festival of the Dreaming – part of Sydney’s Olympic Arts Festival. He was the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Award for writing and directing The Living Floor Project for Casula Powerhouse. He recently established the Noel Tovey Fellowship Fund, which, in association with the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, enables financially disadvantaged children to continue their education and be trained in all areas of performing skills. Since 2003 he has been performing in Australia his one-man play Little Black Bastard, based on his own life story.

Frank Archibald, a revered member of the Armidale community, was renowned for his interest in all issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – particularly education. To honour his memory, The University of New England established the Frank Archibald Memorial Lecture, featuring Indigenous speakers who are leading professionals in fields such as education, law, social justice and government. Previous speakers include Aden Ridgeway, Pat O’Shane, and the late Charles Perkins, the first Aboriginal person to become a permanent head of a Federal Government department. The lecture, organised by the UNE's Oorala Centre, forms part of NAIDOC Week celebrations in Armidale.

For more information, phone (02) 6773 2768 or e-mail rsvp.archibald@une.edu.au.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at July 4, 2006 02:31 PM