Steve Dodd | |
|---|---|
 Steve Dodd, serving with the Australian Army inKorea (1953), Australian War Memorial | |
| Born | 1 June 1928 Unclear (see below) |
| Died | 10 November 2014(2014-11-10) (aged 86) Basin View, Australia |
| Occupations | Actor, soldier, stockman |
| Years active | 1946–2008 |
Steve Dodd (1 June 1928 – 10 November 2014) was anAboriginal Australian actor, notable for playing Aboriginal characters across seven decades of Australian film. After beginning his working life as a stockman and rodeo rider, Dodd was given his first film roles by prominent Australian actorChips Rafferty. His career was interrupted by six years in theAustralian Army during theKorean War, and limited bytypecasting.
Dodd performed in several major Australian movies, includingGallipoli andThe Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, in which he played Tabidgi, the murdering uncle of the lead character. He also held minor parts in Australia-based international film productions includingThe Coca-Cola Kid,Quigley Down Under andThe Matrix. He likewise appeared in minor roles in early Australian television series, such asHomicide andRush, as well as later series includingThe Flying Doctors. In 2013, Dodd was honoured with theJimmy Little Lifetime Achievement Award at the 19thDeadly Awards at theSydney Opera House. He died in November 2014.
Stephen Dodd, also known as Mullawa,[1] Mulla Walla,[2] or Mullawalla[3][4] (flying fish),[2] was anArrernteAboriginal man from central Australia. Sources vary regarding his place of birth, and whether it was in theNorthern Territory orSouth Australia: a 1966 article in theNew South Wales Aborigines Welfare Board magazineDawn states he was born inAlice Springs, Northern Territory,[5] and one 1973 newspaper source states he was born at theHermannsburg Mission, to the south-west of Alice Springs.[6] However, his entry on theDepartment of Veterans' Affairs'Nominal Roll of Australian Veterans of the Korean War states he was born atOodnadatta, in the far north of South Australia.[7] A 1953 newspaper report about his return from service in Korea states that he was fromCoober Pedy in the far north of South Australia, and had been a resident of theColebrook Home for Aboriginal Children just outside the small town ofQuorn in theFlinders Ranges further south,[8] which housed Aboriginal children from northern South Australia; some residents subsequently identified as members of theStolen Generations.[9] In 1969, Dodd visited the now relocated home inEden Hills for the 80th birthday celebrations for Sister Delia Rutter, who had looked after him as a boy when the home was at Quorn.[10] The only birth date record is in the Korean War nominal roll, which gives 1 June 1928.[7]
After enlisting in theAustralian Army for a six-year term in April 1951,[3][11] Dodd underwentinfantry training before being posted to the1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1 RAR);[3] his service number was 41018.[7] In September, 1 RAR was warned for service in theKorean War, which had begun in 1950. After a farewell march through Sydney, 1 RAR boarded thetroopship HMTDevonshire on 18 March 1952. Unit training was completed in Japan, and 1 RAR arrived in South Korea on 6 April and occupied positions on theJamestown Line on 19 June, under the command of the28th Commonwealth Infantry Brigade. At this stage of the war, the fighting had settled into fairly statictrench warfare, and 1 RAR was occupied with duties including defence, repairingminefield fences, patrolling,reconnaissance, and raids on enemy trenches. In July 1952, 1 RAR suffered four killed and 33 wounded duringOperation Blaze, and captured its firstprisoner in September, before being relieved in the line at the end of that month. Returning to the trenches in December, 1 RAR had a difficult task re-establishing a poorly maintained position, and suffered 50 casualties. During the same month the battalion participated in Operation Fauna, destroying an enemy position for the loss of three missing and 22 wounded. Relieved just before New Year's Day 1953, Operation Fauna became the unit's last action of the war, as it remained in a rest area until it was replaced by the2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, in March. During its time in Korea, 1 RAR suffered a total of 42 killed and 107 wounded, and spent long periods in close proximity to the enemy in forward positions. After his return from Korea, Dodd transferred to theRoyal Australian Army Ordnance Corps, and completed his term of service in early 1957.[3]
In 1966 he was reported to be a bachelor;[11] later sources shed no light on his marital status. In 1971 he remarked in an interview that his father and six brothers were living in the Northern Territory.[12] In the 19th and 20th centuries, Indigenous Australian men played significant roles asstockmen in the Australian pastoral industry, and as entertainers participating in competitive demonstrations of stockmen's skills, referred to as rough riding.[13] Dodd worked as a stockman, horse breaker androdeo rider prior to and during his acting career,[14] including a period working for rider and entertainerSmoky Dawson.[15] He was a member of the Rough Riders Association, and gave exhibition rides at theCalgary Stampede in 1964.[11]
From 1969 to at least 1973 Dodd worked as a guide forAirlines of New South Wales, escorting tours toUluru and other locations in central Australia.[6] Dodd stated that he demonstratedboomerang and spear-throwing atExpo 70, and at anOlympic Games (though which year is unknown).[12] He was also a participant in a re-enactment of CaptainJames Cook's landing in Australia, as part of theAustralian Bicentenary celebrations.[6] In 1985, Dodd was living inManly, New South Wales, having spent fifteen years in Sydney's northern suburbs.[16] For the last two decades of his life, Dodd lived atSt Georges Basin on the south coast of New South Wales, where he died on 10 November 2014, aged 86.[1][2][17]
Dodd's first opportunity to act inAustralian film came in 1946, when the actorChips Rafferty noticed Dodd on the set ofThe Overlanders[5] – a film set in the northern Australian bush duringWorld War II[18] – and arranged for him to have a minor role.[5] Two Aboriginal actors who, unlike Dodd, are credited for their parts in the film, wereHenry Murdoch and Clyde Combo,[18] who worked alongside Dodd on later movies likeBitter Springs andKangaroo.[19]
The Overlanders was the first of three Rafferty movies in which Dodd secured a part,[12] the second beingBitter Springs in 1950, anotherEaling Studios film. The film was about a family of white settlers fighting to take possession of land and resources from an Aboriginal clan.[20] It was notable for being "a serious study of the relations of white settlers and Aborigines",[21] and "more honest than most Australian film-makers ventured to be at that time".[22] Film writer Bruce Molloy describedBitter Springs as a "lucid and dramatically effective representation" of black–white conflict in colonial Australia, giving Indigenous Australians "a degree of justice long denied them in cinematic representation".[23] Dodd had been working onBitter Springs as a tracker and interpreter for the actorMichael Pate when Rafferty arranged for Dodd to have an on-screen role.[12] There was a positive relationship between the local Aboriginal people and the cast and crew, particularly Rafferty, involved in the location filming forBitter Springs in the area ofQuorn in northern South Australia. Pate said that Rafferty "wasn't a prejudiced person ... Chips was a person who appreciated the Aborigine [sic] very much ... he got on very well with the people".[24] Dodd, meanwhile, appreciated Rafferty's vision for an Australian film industry and its potential to provide opportunities for Indigenous Australians.[12] During the making ofBitter Springs the producers were sharply criticised for their poor treatment of the uncredited Aboriginal actors employed on the movie.[25] Rafferty was also the star of the film that gave Dodd his third minor on-screen role, the American productionKangaroo in 1952.[5]
In 1957, theJ. Arthur Rank organisation, a British company, came to Australia to make a film adaptation ofRobbery Under Arms, an Australian colonial novel byRolf Boldrewood.[26] Dodd reported travelling to Britain and the United States with the company for six months, where he gained experience; in what role is unknown.[14] Dodd also stated that he worked with Rafferty on a fourth film,Wake in Fright, in 1971,[12] but Dodd's name does not appear in published cast lists.[27][28] He also reported that in the same year, he was cast in the role of an Aboriginal caretaker in a short film titledSacrifice, which is held by theNational Film and Sound Archive.[12][29] In 1974, he appeared in a short film titledMe and You Kangaroo.[30]
Dodd also had several roles in theatre. In 1966, he performed the role of Darky Morris inJ. C. Williamson's stage production ofDesire of the Moth, with a season of nearly three months in Melbourne and Sydney.[5] In August 1971, he appeared in an early Sydney production ofKevin Gilbert's seminal work,The Cherry Pickers. The play also featured fellow Aboriginal actorAthol Compton, and was highly commended in theCaptain Cook Bicentenary Competition.[31] In October of the same year, Dodd was a prominent guest at the launch ofIdentity, a magazine published by theAboriginal Publications Foundation that was described by the Chairman of the Council for Aboriginal AffairsH. C. Coombs as one "whereby Aborigines can talk to other Aborigines and can also talk to us".[32]
There were numerous small television roles for Dodd. His work for Smoky Dawson included appearing in the television seriesAdventure with Smoky Dawson: Tim Goes Walkabout, broadcast in June 1966.[33] In other television work, Dodd participated in aChannel 7 documentary series about pioneering Australian transport companyCobb and Co, and also worked on several documentary programs for theAustralian Broadcasting Corporation.[11] Dodd had minor roles in many early Australian TV dramas of the 1960s and 1970s, includingWhiplash,[34]Skippy the Bush Kangaroo,[10]Division 4,Delta (1969),[12]Riptide (1969),[10]Woobinda – Animal Doctor (1970),Spyforce (1972–73),[35]Homicide (1974), andRush (1976).[36] In March 1969 it was reported that he had been cast in a new series titledSparky, the Koala Bear to be filmed after Easter that year.[10] In 1973 it was reported that a television filmMarra Marra featuring prominent Aboriginal actorsDavid Gumpilil andBob Maza, together with Dodd and Zac Martin, had been completed by Spinifex Productions.[37]
Although Dodd obtained small parts in several television series, for many years he and his fellow Aboriginal actors found themselves included in only minor and typecast roles in television productions. According to Indigenous actor, historian and activistGary Foley,[38] Dodd joked that "he was sick of roles where his total dialogue was, 'he went that way, Boss!'"[39] Reflecting on this issue, a commentator remarked on the 1978 filmLittle Boy Lost: "There are many irrelevant scenes, the most obvious one being where Tracker Bindi (Steve Dodd), an Aboriginal, is introduced – yet another tired reinforcement of a false stereotype.[40]
Dodd contributed to several films in which issues facing Indigenous Australians, such asland rights and race relations, were the central subjects.[36][41] These appearances includedBitter Springs andThe Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978), the first of two films in which he appeared alongsideJack Thompson. Dodd played the character of Tabidgi, the uncle of the lead character, Aboriginal man Jimmie Blacksmith. In the film, Jimmie Blacksmith marries a white woman named Gilda Marshall (played byAngela Punch McGregor). When they have a baby, Dodd's character, "a tribal elder, ... is worried about Jimmie's marriage to a white woman and has brought him a talisman to keep him safe".[42] Pauline Kael, writing inThe New Yorker, described the performances of the two black professional actors (Jack Charles and Dodd) as "wonderful as sots: ... Steve Dodds [sic], who is tried for murder and simply says, 'You'd think it would take a good while to make up your mind to kill someone and then to kill them, but take my word for it, it only takes a second'".[42]
Dodd's career was busiest in the 1980s, and by 1985 it was reported that he had acted in 55 movies or television features.[16] In 1981 he played Billy Snakeskin in the filmGallipoli, about the fate of young men who participated in the World War IGallipoli Campaign of 1915.[43] This was followed by parts inChase Through the Night andEssington, both in 1984. In 1985 he played the role of Mr Joe inThe Coca-Cola Kid, an Australian romantic comedy with an international cast includingEric Roberts andGreta Scacchi.[44] In 1986 he appeared in the filmShort Changed. He also had minor parts in the popular television seriesHomicide (1964–1977),Division 4 (1969–1975),Rush (1974–1976) andThe Flying Doctors (1985––1988).[36]
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith was not the only film in which Dodd appeared that addressed topical Indigenous issues of the day. A decade afterJimmie Blacksmith, Dodd performed inGround Zero, again with Jack Thompson in one of the lead roles.[45] This film is a thriller based on claims that Indigenous Australians were used as human guinea pigs in theBritish nuclear tests at Maralinga.[46] The film uses as its context theMcClelland Royal Commission, which was investigating radioactive contamination at the site. In the film, Dodd plays a minor character named Freddy Tjapaljarri.[47]
Sources differ on whether Dodd had a part inEvil Angels (released asA Cry in the Dark outside of Australia and New Zealand), the 1988 film about theAzaria Chamberlain disappearance, with Dodd's name not included in the cast list published byAustralian Film 1978–1994.[48] In 1988 he played a minor role inKadaicha, an unreleasedhorror film about a series of unexplained murders.[49] In 1990 Dodd appeared in two films:Quigley Down Under, awestern made in Australia but starring AmericanTom Selleck and BritonAlan Rickman;[50] andThe Crossing, an Australian drama set in a country town.[51]
Dodd's career returned to politically contentious Indigenous issues when he played a minor role, of Kummengu, in the 1991 filmDeadly. This film is a police drama based around the death of an Indigenous man in police custody.[52] As withGround Zero, the subject was very topical: the movie was released at the same time as the report of theRoyal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, which had for four years been examining why so many Indigenous Australiansdied in police detention.[53]
In 1999, Dodd was one of three actors inWind, a short film portraying the pursuit of an old Aboriginal man (Dodd) by a young black tracker and a white police sergeant.[54][55] That same year was marked by the most commercially successful film of his career,The Matrix.[56] Later, Dodd played minor roles in an episode of television seriesThe Alice (2006) and the moviesMy Country (2007)[57] andBroken Sun (2008);[58] his career in film and television lasted for sixty-seven years.[36]
In 2013, Dodd received theJimmy Little Lifetime Achievement Award at the19th Deadly Awards at theSydney Opera House. Departing from tradition by presenting the award to someone who was not primarily a musician, the organisers described Dodd as "a pioneer and leader for our people in the field of the arts, showing resilience and dogged determination – barriers were not going to hold him back".[36] They also described him as "an actor that created a pathway for others across the entire arts and music sectors to follow, at a time when typecasting stereotypes and discrimination was the 'norm' in Australia's arts industry".[36]
| Film | Year | Character | Sources and notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Overlanders | 1946 | minor role | Feature film[5] |
| Bitter Springs | 1950 | minor role | Feature film[5] |
| Kangaroo | 1952 | minor role | Feature film[5] |
| Wake in Fright | 1971 | Feature film Does not appear in published cast lists,[27][28] but Dodd reported working on the film.[12] | |
| Me and You Kangaroo | 1974 | Short film Held by the National Film and Sound Archive[30] | |
| Little Boy Lost | 1978 | Bindi (tracker) | Feature film[40] |
| The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith | 1978 | Tabidgi | Feature film[42][59] |
| Gallipoli | 1981 | Billy Snakeskin | Feature film[43] |
| Chase Through the Night | 1984 | Narli | Miniseries Held by the National Film and Sound Archive[60] |
| Essington | 1984 | Feature film[61] | |
| The Coca-Cola Kid | 1985 | Mr Joe | Feature film[44] |
| Short Changed | 1986 | Old Drunk | [62] |
| Ground Zero | 1987 | Freddy Tjapalijarri | Feature film[47] |
| Evil Angels (A Cry in the Dark) | 1988 | Nipper Winmatti | Feature film Dodd does not appear in the cast list in Murray.[48] |
| Kadaicha | 1988 | Feature film[49] | |
| Young Einstein | 1988 | Feature film Dodd does not appear in the cast list in Murray, but this is a condensed one.[63] | |
| The Water Trolley (short film) | 1988 | Feature film Held by the National Film and Sound Archive[64] | |
| Quigley | 1990 | Kunkurra | Feature film[50] |
| The Crossing | 1990 | Old Spider | Feature film[51] |
| Spirit of the Blue Mountains | 1990 | Presenter | Documentary (Screen Australia)[65] |
| Deadly | 1991 | Kummengu | Feature film[52] |
| Wind | 1999 | Old Aboriginal Man | Short film[66] |
| The Matrix | 1999 | Blind man | Feature film[56] |
| My Country | 2007 | Old Uncle | Short film[67] |
| Broken Sun | 2008 | Aboriginal Man | Feature film[58] |
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