Trevor Jamieson

Trevor Jamieson (born 7 March 1975) is an Aboriginal Australian stage and film actor, playwright, dancer, singer and didgeridoo player.

Early life Trevor Jamieson was born on 7 March 1975 in Subiaco, Western Australia (WA).

He grew up in the Western Australian Goldfields region, mostly around Kalgoorlie, Esperance, and Norseman, but his people are mostly of the Central Desert, in particular Nullarbor and Maralinga. He has links to Pitjantjara (on his father's side ), Kukatja, and other groups, including the Noongar peoples of south-western WA (on his mother's side). His mother was removed from his grandmother by missionaries soon after birth, so as a child he learnt more about his father's side. His father and his grandfather were policemen. and an uncle of actor Clarence Ryan, whom he met while filming Lockie Leonard, where they play father and son.

Career Jamieson is an actor, singer, and didgeridoo player. In 1996 he was in Corrugation Road, another musical by Jimmy Chi, this time set in a mental hospital.

He co-wrote The Career Highlights of the MAMU with Scott Rankin, staged in 2002. This was a dramatisation of the impact of the British nuclear testing at Maralinga, South Australia between 1956 and 1963 on the Indigenous Australians in the region, who were known as the Spinifex people. A video recording was made of the production performed by Black Swan Theatre Company at the Kampnagel theatre in Hamburg, Germany in August 2002. This was a language revitalisation and community development project started in 2005 and which developed into a stage performance as an offshoot. In the theatrical production, Jamieson narrates his family's story. and evolved over the years, with performances around the country with changes of cast and script.Ngapartji Ngapartji has toured Australia extensively in between 2005 and 2008 with the show undergoing various developments throughout its production history. In 2012, the show was revived in Canberra in a condensed version under the name Ngapartji Ngapartji One, but Jamieson was not in the cast that year as he was touring with another Big hART production, Namatjira.

In 2012–13 Jamieson played the artist Albert Namatjira in Namatjira, in a performance that was another offshoot of a community project by Big hART, written and directed by Scott Rankin. The play was seen by over 48,000 Australians at its performances at Belvoir and Riverside Theatre Parramatta (Sydney), Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne, and many other theatres on its regional tour of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, before touring to London, where it played at the Southbank Centre in November. The play won the 2012 Helpmann Award for Best Regional Touring Production.

In 2013 he took the role of Fingerbone Bill in a stage production of Storm Boy by Barking Gecko Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company, based on the 1964 novel by Colin Thiele. which closed the 2014 Adelaide Festival on 16 March 2014. The performers, who included Jamieson, Archie Roach, Lou Bennett, Emma Donovan and many other singers and musicians, sang songs with lyrics by writer Alexis Wright, with some sung in Aboriginal languages. The performance included both contemporary and traditional songs, and had premiered five years earlier at the 2009 Melbourne International Arts Festival, with Jamieson not in the original cast.

In 2016, Jamieson participated in a multicultural dance presentation, along with Indian dancers Isha Shavani and Tao Issaro, other Aboriginal dancers, and Maori dancers. The performance was called Kaya, meaning "hello", and it toured regional WA, including Kalgoorlie, before premiering in Perth at the Dolphin Theatre at UWA.

In May 2022 Jamieson played Dugald in a revival of the opera Voss, a co-production by State Opera South Australia and Victorian Opera. Originally scheduled to be performed in Melbourne in August 2021, The production was well-reviewed, with two critics giving it four out of five stars.

Jameieson acted in the 2013 and 2016 productions of Andrew Bovell's The Secret River. was a record-breaking success, playing to full houses over 18 nights.

Jamieson's performance in Jada Alberts' Brothers Wreck (2016) was praised. The topic (Indigenous youth suicide) was one for which Jamieson could draw on his own life experiences.

Film and TV In 2009, an episode of Message Stick on ABC Television, called "Spinifex Man", was aired. Filmmaker Allan Collins talks to Jamieson about his life and work in the program.

Awards & nominations Year Title Award Category Result 2008 Ngapartji Ngapartji Sydney Theatre Awards Best Actor in a Lead Role 2008 Ngapartji Ngapartji Sydney Theatre Awards Best Mainstage Production 2008 Ngapartji Ngapartji Deadly Awards 2008 Most Outstanding Achievement in Film, TV and Theatre 2008 Ngapartji Ngapartji Deadly Awards 2008 Best Script 2010 Namatjira Sydney Theatre Awards Best Leading Man 2020 Ayaan South Australian Screen Awards Best Male Performance 2020 Ayaan St Kilda Short Film Festival Best Actor 2021 A Small Punch in a Littie Town Northern Virginia International Film & Music Festival Festival Award for Best Acting Ensemble 2021 A Small Punch in a Littie Town Hollywood Dreamz International Film Festival Outstanding Cast Performance Feature

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