''I, the Aboriginal'' is an Australian book and television film about the life of
Aboriginal Australian Phillip Roberts (or Waipuldanya).
The 1962 book, written in first person, is described as the autobiography of Waipuldanya, a full-blood Aboriginal man of the
Alawa tribe at Roper River (
Ngukurr
Ngukurr ( , ), formerly Roper River Mission (1908−1968), is a remote Aboriginal community on the banks of the Roper River in southern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.
A number of different clans and language groups are represented in the tow ...
) in the
Northern Territory, as told to
Douglas Lockwood. The book concerns Waipuldanya's traditional upbringing and his training to become a skilled medical assistant for the Department of Health at Darwin Hospital. Lockwood wrote the book from more than 100 hours of interview with Roberts. ''I, the Aboriginal'' won the major literary award at the
Adelaide Festival of the Arts in 1962.
An ABC television film, in which Roberts played himself, was based on the book. Directed by
Cecil Holmes, the film won the
Australian Film Institute
The Australian Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry. It is responsib ...
's Gold Award in 1964. Holmes' wife and indigenous advocate
Sandra Le Brun Holmes
Sandra or SANDRA may refer to:
People
* Sandra (given name)
* Sandra (singer) (born 1962), German pop singer
* Margaretha Sandra (1629–1674), Dutch soldier
* Sandra (orangutan), who won the legal right to be defined as a "non-human person"
Pl ...
contributed an account of the experience of their making ''I, the Aboriginal'' to ''
Walkabout''.
References
External links
''I, the Aboriginal''at
IMDb
1964 documentary films
Documentary films about Aboriginal Australians
Australian documentary films
1960s English-language films
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