Vale Uncle Jack Charles: a tribute to the revered Indigenous actor in his own words

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the following contains images and mentions of deceased persons. Note: Jack Charles’ family has given permission to use his name and image.

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Uncle Jack Charles — Indigenous actor, musician and advocate — has passed away at the age of 79. Charles, a Stolen Generations survivor, was a revered star of stage and screen, as well as a co-founder of Australia’s first Indigenous-led theatre group in Melbourne. He overcame sexual and physical abuse as a child, a heroin addiction and 22 stints in prison.

We remember the man, a formidable, candid and frequently hilarious interview subject, in his own words.

On white Australia

We insist, we insist you know our story of resistance and of our warriors. We just insist you know it.

On prison

I was unafraid of going to prisons because I’d spent a childhood in institutions and when I finally got to Pentridge I saw all the other failed adopted kids who remembered me coming into Box Hill Boys’ Home as a baby.

On the Salvation Army Boys home

It’s hard to convey the damage that place did to me. It wasn’t just the abuse that traumatised me, the Box Hill Boys’ Home stripped me of my Aboriginality.

On relationships

I dated Jack Huston for five years in the early ’70s and he opened my eyes to ballet, opera and musicals. Our relationship was doomed because I never knew what love was. I’d never been held as a child and it felt strange to be held by a man…

I haven’t dated anybody since Jack. I don’t feel the need. I knock back many offers from men and women, both black and white. Many want to have a long-term relationship with this blackfella, but I reject them. I’ve become a loner, comfortable with myself and where I’ve been.

On marriage equality

I was tickled pink. I’d thought Australia was too much of a bastard country to get it through. Being gay and arty, this is important to me.

On his time robbing houses in “the posher districts of Melbourne”

I robbed as rent collection for stolen Aboriginal land! Those mansions were on my mother’s land, but I’m sure if I told the judge I was a rent collector, not a robber, I’d have been given another two years on my sentence.

On being a mentor

To be an elder, you have to be statesmanlike. Own your past indiscretions. Share your wealth … I’ve been an actor since I was 19, but I lost a lot of work because of white powders and jail time. I dearly would’ve loved an Aboriginal elder like me to come and tweak my conscience. I’ve had the breaks in my life — now I want to make sure other young Indigenous kids get theirs.

On acting

In a way it saved me. I think I owe my life to having found the theatre.

The idea of putting that all down on a big screen for the world to see, doesn’t embarrass me. It’s no shame job, because my life, as I see it, is a variation on so many other lives, they don’t have the opportunity like I have … to be given the full scope of that which had been lost, denied and hidden from me.