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Rosalie Kunoth-Monks

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Kunoth-Monks in 1955

Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM (1937 – 26 January 2022), also known as Ngarla Kunoth, was an Australian film actress, Aboriginal activist and politician.

Early life and education

Kunoth-Monks speaking at the world premiere of Jedda in Darwin in 1955

Kunoth was born in 1937 at Utopia Cattle Station (Arapunya) in the Northern Territory of Australia to parents of the Anmatyerre people. Her paternal grandfather, Harry Kunoth, was German, hence her German surname.[1] He and her grandmother, Amelia Kunoth, co-managed several cattle stations in the Northern Territory.[2]

In 1951, Kunoth was 14 years old and staying at St Mary's Hostel in Alice Springs when the filmmakers Charles and Elsa Chauvel recruited her to play the title role in their 1955 film Jedda.[3] Her nickname was Rosie, but the Chauvels changed her name for the screen to Ngarla Kunoth.[3][4]

Kunoth was the first Indigenous Australian female lead. The groundbreaking film was played for audiences at the Cannes Film Festival 60 years later in 2015.[5] This experience inspired the play and TV play Burst of Summer.[6]

Activism and politics

Kunoth spent 10 years from 1960 as an Anglican nun in the Community of the Holy Name in Melbourne. She then left the order, married Bill Monks and started work with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, setting up the first home in Victoria for Aboriginal children.[1][7] She had a daughter, Ngarla.[1]

Returning to the Alice Springs region, she worked for Aboriginal Hostels, the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.[7]

The then Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Paul Everingham, appointed her an adviser on Aboriginal affairs. Kunoth stood for election to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in 1980. She campaigned to oppose the proposed construction of a dam that threatened to destroy land sacred to her people. She lost that election but went on to continuing activism working to improve the lives of indigenous people. In 1999 she was appointed vice chair of the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education Council and subsequently chair.[8]

By 2008 she had returned to the Utopia homelands, 260 kilometres (160 mi) north-east of Alice Springs, and in that year became president of Barkly Shire.[9] In August 2008 she went to Canberra for Amnesty International and denounced federal government intervention in the Northern Territory as a "huge violation of human rights", displacing "more Indigenous people from their traditional lands, depriving them of opportunities to speak their native language and severing links with [their] culture. Our beings are very fragile. We disagree with being herded by the army into the big centres".[10] Two months later she said that "It's not that they're coming here with bulldozers or getting the army to move us. It's that they're trying to starve us out of our home. ... They won't support us becoming sustainable in our own right. If you're made to feel a second-class humanity, if it's not ethnic cleansing, please let me know what is." Utopia, which is world-famous for its dot paintings, was trying to start its own cattle business and wanted to be a cultural centre, she said.[11]

At the 2013 federal election, Kunoth-Monks stood unsuccessfully as a senate candidate in the Northern Territory on behalf of the First Nations Political Party.[12] In November 2014, Kunoth-Monks was a significant influence in bringing together with Tauto Sansbury a national gathering of Indigenous leaders to unite in the '"fight" for their lands – the "Freedom Movement" – in Alice Springs.[13] In November 2015, Kunoth-Monks was the subject of a tribute song on social media reported on NITV News as "Inspiring song celebrates Indigenous activist Rosalie Kunoth-Monks".[14]

Death

Kunoth-Monks died in Alice Springs on 26 January 2022 at the age of 85.[15][16]

Publication

Honours

  • 1993 – Medal of the Order of Australia, for service to the Aboriginal community.[17][18]
  • 8 March 2007 (International Women's Day) – Kunoth-Monks was presented with a "Northern Territory Tribute to Women Award" at the opening of the National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame in Alice Springs.
  • 26 June 2014 – Kunoth-Monks won the Dr. Mandawuy Yunupingu Human Rights Award at the first ever National Indigenous Human Rights Awards.[19]
  • 26 January 2015 – Kunoth-Monks was a finalist for Australian of the Year after being awarded Northern Territorian of the Year[20]
  • 10 July 2015 – Kunoth-Monks was awarded NAIDOC Person of the Year during the NAIDOC Week celebrations[21]

References

  1. ^ a b c TV program script of interview with Kunoth-Monks, "Biography: Rosalie Kunoth-Monks". National Film and Sound Archive. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  2. ^ Briscoe, Gordon (2010). Racial Folly. ANU Press. doi:10.22459/RF.02.2010. ISBN 978-1-921666-21-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  3. ^ a b Lockwood, Douglas (1970) We, the Aborigines, Walkabout Pocketbooks
  4. ^ "Arunta Tribe Girl Star". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 30 July 1953. p. 6. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
  5. ^ "Jedda returns to the Cannes Film Festival". SBS News. 2015.
  6. ^ Vagg, Stephen (15 November 2020). "The Flawed Landmark: Burst of Summer". Filmink.
  7. ^ a b Whennan, Irene. "Report to Marion Council, SA on the Australian Local Government Women's Association Conference 2009" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 May 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  8. ^ "Batchelor Institute » Honorary Doctorate awarded".
  9. ^ ABC News 17 November 2008 (17 November 2008). "Central Australian shires elect presidents". ABC News. Retrieved 8 September 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ "Film star turned politician blasts intervention", The Age, Melbourne, 10 August 2011, p. 5.
  11. ^ "Conditions in Utopia devastating, says Amnesty chief", The Age, Melbourne, 10 October 2010, p. 7.
  12. ^ "Respect and listen". Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  13. ^ ABC News 25 November 2014 (12 December 2011). "First People's freedom summit". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ "Inspiring song celebrates Indigenous activist Rosalie Kunoth-Monks". 17 November 2015.
  15. ^ "Aboriginal activist, Jedda actor and human rights campaigner Rosalie Kunoth-Monks has died aged 85". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ABC. 27 January 2022. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  16. ^ "Australia Lost A National Treasure Rosalie Kunoth Monks". 3 Kool n Deadly. 26 January 2022. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  17. ^ Korff, Jens (27 January 2020). "Order of Australia: Aboriginal winners". Creative Spirits. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  18. ^ "Rosalie Lynette Kunoth-Monks". Australian Honours Search Facility, Dept of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  19. ^ [1]
  20. ^ [2]
  21. ^ "Meet the NAIDOC Person of the Year 2015 – Rosalie Kunoth-Monks". 8 July 2015.
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