Ningali Josie Lawford, also known as Ningali Lawford-Wolf and Josie Ningali Lawford, (1967 – 11 August 2019) was an Aboriginal Australian actress known for her roles in the films '' Rabbit-Proof Fence'' (2002), '' Bran Nue Dae'' (2009), and ''

Last Cab to Darwin ''Last Cab to Darwin'' is a 2003 Australian drama/comedy stage play written by Reg Cribb and based upon the true story of taxi driver Max Bell who was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer in the early 1990s. The 2003 production was presented ...

'' (2015), for which she was nominated for the AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Early life and education

Ningali Josie Lawford was born in 1967 on Christmas Creek Station, a cattle station in Wangkatjungka, near Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia, where her father, a stockman, and mother, a domestic, worked. She was a member of the

Walmadjari The Walmadjari (Walmajarri) people, also known as Tjiwaling and Wanaseka, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Name The two names reflect different Walmadjari preferences. Their western bands accept ...

(Tjiwaling) people, and of the Wangkatjunga language group. After attending Kewdale Senior High School in Perth, she spent a year in

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...

, on an American Field Scholarship. Lawford trained in dance at the

Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre (AIDT) was the first dance company used to train Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students on their dancing career, and grew into a performance group. Originating in the National Aboriginal and Islander Ski ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Career

Lawford made her acting debut in the musical '' Bran Nue Dae'', which premiered in Perth in 1990. She later appeared in the 2009 film version. In 1994, Lawford premiered her one-woman show, ''Ningali'', in Perth. It was co-written by stage directors

Robyn Archer Robyn Archer, AO, CdOAL (born 1948) is an Australian singer, writer, stage director, artistic director, and public advocate of the arts, in Australia and internationally. Life Archer was born Robyn Smith in Prospect, South Australia. She beg ...

and Angela Chaplin, whom she had met the previous year. The show toured internationally and won the Fringe First Award for Best New Production at the 1995

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

and the 1996

Green Room Award The Green Room Awards are peer awards which recognise excellence in cabaret, dance, drama, fringe theatre, musical theatre and opera in Melbourne. The awards were started in 1982 when Blair Edgar and Steven Tandy formed the Green Room Awards A ...

for Best Actress in a One Woman Show. Other theatre roles included ''Aliwa'' for

Company B Belvoir Belvoir is an Australian theatre company based at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, Australia, originally known as Company B. Since 2016 and its artistic director is Eamon Flack. The theatre contains a 330-seat Upstairs Theatre and a 80-seat ...

(2001), Uncle Vanya (2005) and

Jandamarra Jandamarra or Tjandamurra (c. 1873—1 April 1897), known to European settlers as Pigeon,
in: Taylor (2004) w ...

(2008) both for Black Swan Theatre Company. In 2000, the satirical comedy ''Black and Tran'' premiered at the

Melbourne Comedy Festival The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the second-largest international comedy festival in the world. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typicall ...

. It was a collaboration between Lawford and Vietnamese comedian Hung Le. It addressed "the issue of racial discrimination by ridiculing the stereotypes of Aboriginal and Vietnamese cultures". Lawford played Maude, the mother of protagonist Molly, in the 2002 film '' Rabbit-Proof Fence''. In 2015, Lawford played the role of Polly in the film ''

'', for which she received an AACTA Award nomination for AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role. In 2017, Lawford voiced the character of Nanna on the National Indigenous Television (NITV) animated series ''Little J & Big Cuz'', which features Indigenous Australian characters. Lawford was involved in the development of ''The Secret River (play), The Secret River'' at the Sydney Theatre Company, narrating its return Sydney season and national tour in 2016, Adelaide Festival performances in 2018 and Edinburgh Festival performances in 2019. She died of complications following a severe asthma attack while in Edinburgh, Scotland, during the tour, aged 52.

Personal life

Lawford had five children and two grandchildren. She moved to Kalbarri later in her career to pursue a break away from being an actress and to also spend more time raising her children before returning to film.

Works

Film

Stage

Television

Awards and nominations

She won awards for her one-woman theatre show Ningali, Aliwa, Uncle Vanya and Jandamarra.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lawford, Ningali 1967 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Australian actresses 21st-century Australian actresses Actresses from Western Australia Australian film actresses Australian stage actresses Australian television actresses Deaths from asthma Indigenous Australian actresses Indigenous Australians from Western Australia Indigenous Australian dancers