Richard Frankland

Richard Frankland is a Gunditjmara man from Victoria.

He is a playwright, scriptwriter musician, and has worked tirelessly for the Aboriginal cause.

He wrote and directed Harry's War, a feature film based on his uncle's role in World War II on the Kokoda Trail. The film was screend at the British War Memorial in London and won Best Short Film at Spike Lee's alternative Oscars for black film-makers in Hollywood.

Frankland has worked as a soldier, a fisherman and was appointed senior advisor to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. This experience inspired him to write several plays, including No Way to Forget, Who Killed Malcolm Smith and Conversations with the Dead. In 2004, his play, Conversations with the Dead, was performed at the United Nations.

Richard is also an acclaimed musician whose music features on the soundtracks to many of his films. In 1991 his first band Djaambi supported Prince on his Australian Tour.

In the early nineties he founded Mirimbiak Nations Aboriginal Corporation (MNAC) which was the first Indigenous statewide land organisation in some twenty five years. MNAC was responsibile for representing traditional owners and lodging all Native Title claims throughout the state of Victoria (excepting the already lodged Yorta Yorta claim but including the recently successful Gunditjmara claim). Richard was also instrumental in forming Defenders of Native Title (DONT) which later became Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTAR).

Richard's current musical project is The Charcoal Club, which recently performed at The Spiegeltent with Chamber Made Orchestra. Their latest album is Cry Freedom.

In 2004 he helped form the Your Voice political party, after the abolition of ATSIC, saying,

"It’s time that we as Indigenous Australians put the onus of equity back on non-Indigenous Australians and ask
them straight out, ‘Is this a racist society? Would you like to see Indigenous Australians in the halls of Parliament?
Do you believe in an equitable voice in this society? With the abolition of ATSIC, Aboriginal people now have no voice.
We have no point of political dialogue.”

Plays

• Conversations with the Dead
• No Way to Forget
• Harry's War
• Walkabout

Films

• Harry's War
• No Way To Forget
• After Mabo - The Amendments
• Who Killed Malcolm Smith

Novels

• Digger J Jones

Albums

• Down Three Waterholes Road
• Dingo's Brekky
• Meeting One (The Charcoal Club)
• Meeting Two (The Charcoal Club - Cry Freedom)

External References

• Golden Seahorse Productions [[1]]
• 7.30 Report: Aboriginal Film Lauded in Hollywood [[2]]
• Your Voice political party [[3]]