Ernie Dingo

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Notable

Traits

Family

Australian Aboriginal actor and comedian with a magnetic screen presence who has broken new ground in the popular presentation of his native culture during an extensive and remarkable career in film and television. Dingo was born in a tin hut on a cattle station in remote Western Australia as a member of the Wudjadi people and given a tribal name (Oondamooroo, meaning "shield") and an English name (Ernie Ashly Dingo after his maternal grandfather, Jimmie Dingo, a tracker). The second of nine children, he was born to Bessie, an attractive 24-year-old cook, and raised by her and a stepfather (who died in 1977), on the outskirts of a small nearby town. Becoming skilled in the oral traditions of his tribe, Dingo was moved 90km from his family to attend school in Geraldton at age 12. At 17 he moved south to Perth to do an apprenticeship in sign writing. Lean and almost two meters tall, the sporty Dingo was a natural show-off who joined a basketball team. When the team formed the Middar Aboriginal Dance Theatre in 1978, he began his career in song and dance. Moving into stage roles he appeared in plays by Western Australian Aboriginal playwright Jack Davis, such as "The Dreamers" 1982. First appearing on television in 1985 in the miniseries "Cowra Breakout," Dingo subsequently gained popularity in the comedy-variety show, "Fast Forward" 1989-93. His first major screen roles were in films -- "Tudawali," 1985, "Fringe Dwellers," 1986 and "State of Shock," 1989 -- all of which dealt sympathetically with problems of racism. In 1988 Dingo was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Banff Television Festival in Canada for his powerful performance as one of Australia's first Aboriginal screen actors, Robert Tudawali, in "Tudawali." Dingo's dramatic roles include that of an Aboriginal police liaison officer in "Heartland," 1994, and a teacher in "Heartbreak High," 1994-95, both highly acclaimed series on ABC television. As of 2001, Dingo's best known as the host of "The Great Outdoors," a travel show on commercial TV on which he has appeared as a reporter since 1993. Dingo draws on traditional and contemporary aspects of his native culture to shape his work as an Aboriginal actor because such work frequently also requires him to be a consultant, cultural mediator, co-writer and translator. Although taking roles scripted specifically for an Aboriginal actor by white writers and directors while establishing his career, Dingo has since worked consistently to popularize Aboriginal perspectives on Australian life. Acclaimed as one of the nation's finest contemporary actors, Dingo is extremely versatile with his craft, adept at engaging audiences with his easy-going humor or serious characterizations. Having helped normalize the on-screen appearance of Aboriginal people while raising mainstream awareness and understanding of indigenous cultures, he received his A.M. (Member of the Order of Australia) for his services to the Arts in 1991. A self-confessed loner, Dingo married a white woman, Sally (b. Latrobe, Tasmania, 1953), a writer and former advertising manager for a commercial television network, in 1990, and they have two children, Wilara and Jurra. Sally Dingo's biography of the memoirs of three generations of Dingo's family was released in 1997. Link to Wikipedia biography