Tom E. Lewis

Tom E. Lewis (25 August 1958 – 10 May 2018), also known by his traditional name Balang Lewis, and sometimes credited as Tommy Lewis was an Aboriginal Australian actor, musician, and artistic director. His first major role was the title role in the 1978 Fred Schepisi film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, and in 2006 he was the recipient of a Red Ochre Award from the Australia Council for the Arts. He released two albums: Sunshine After Rain (2005) and Beneath the Sun (2013), and was the founding director of Djilpin Arts in Beswick, Northern Territory.

Balang Lewis, also known as Balang T.E. Lewis or Tom E. Lewis, was born on 25 August 1958 on the banks of the Roper River in Ngukurr, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. His father was a Welsh stockman called Hurtle Lewis, but he left the family when Lewis was young. His mother, artist Angelina George, was of the Murrungun, Wandarrang, and Mara peoples, and he was brought up in traditional culture in Arnhem Land.

After leaving school at the age of 12, he worked as a bricklayer and stockman to support the family, and then went to Darwin to train as a mechanic.

On 3 May 1985, Lewis appeared alongside Ernie Dingo, Richard Walley, Justine Saunders, and others in Bullie's House at Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut, United States.

From around 1989, he spent many years working in the Melbourne theatre scene, having worked with Playbox (later Malthouse), Melbourne Theatre Company, Melbourne Workers Theatre, and Handspan Theatres.

In 1997, Lewis acted in Up the Ladder, written by Roger Bennett and directed by Wesley Enoch, which toured Victoria and New South Wales.

With Handspan, he devised the internationally successful Lift 'Em Up Socks, a semi-autobiographical multi-media work that premiered in April 2000. He performed on stage with a marionette operated by Rod Primrose.

In May 2006, he played Othello at the Amphitheatre of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, in the Darwin Theatre Company's production of Shakespeare's classic directed by John du Feu.[ 11]

In 2012, he starred alongside Helen Morse in Tim Winton's Signs of Life, a Black Swan Theatre / Sydney Theatre Company co-production,[ 12] which toured Western Australia before a final performance in the Sydney Opera House.

In 2013, Lewis co-created, with Michael Kantor for Malthouse Theatre, a play titled The Shadow King,[ 13] [ 14] described as "an Indigenous version of King Lear".[ 15] The play premiered at the Melbourne Festival in October 2013,[ 13] before touring around the country, playing at Carriageworks for the Sydney Festival,[ 14] Her Majesty's Theatre for the Adelaide Festival,[ 16] and also in Perth, Katherine, Brisbane, and Darwin, all in 2014. In June 2016, the Malthouse Theatre production, directed by Kantor and with most of the original cast, was performed in the Barbican Theatre in London.[ 17] [ 18] [ 19] [ 20]

The lead role in the Fred Schepisi's 1978 film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith was Lewis' first film role, after he had been spotted by casting director Rhonda Schepisi, wife of the director.[ 21]

In 2007 he co-directed, with Julia Morris, a music video, Warrk Warrk (Black Crow), and in 2008 directed a short film, One River, All Rivers. Both were screened at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto, Canada.[ 22]

He co-wrote (with his wife Fleur Parry) a 25-minute documentary film, Yellow Fella, about his experience of coming from a mixed race heritage,[ 23] [ 24] for which he was awarded the 2005 Bob Maza Fellowship by the Australian Film Commission.[ 25] Directed by Ivan Sen, it was selected to screen at the Cannes Film Festival, the first Australian Indigenous documentary ever chosen for Official Selection.[ 26]

He had roles in We of the Never Never (1982), The Proposition (2005), and Crocodile Dreaming (2006), and played one of the leading roles in the psychological thriller Red Hill (2010).[ 27] He was also in Goldstone, directed by Ivan Sen (2016). One of his last major acting roles was in Boori Monty Pryor's 2018 four-part comedy drama miniseries Wrong Kind of Black.[ 28]

In 2014 the hour-long documentary film about the life of didgeridoo player David Blanasi, Kundirri: The Life and Legacy of David Blanasi was released by Djilpin Arts.[ 29] [ 30] [ 31] The film was co-written by Lewis and his wife Fleur Parry, co-directed by Lewis and Julia Morris, and co-produced by Parry and Morris.[ 32]

Finding Maawirrangga (2017) is a documentary short written by Lewis and co-directed by Dylan River Glynn McDonald. It was produced by Julia Morris, and executive produced by Fleur Parry, and screened at the 2017 Sydney Film Festival[ 33] and 2018 Flickerfest.[ 34] After his death in May 2018, it screened at the inaugural Northern Territory Travelling Film Festival in June of that year. The film tells of Lewis' return to his grandmother's country to learn his songlines, and in it he also relates how he contravened some cultural norms on stage.[ 35]

His final movie role was in the documentary-drama The Skin of Others directed by Tom Murray, released posthumously in 2020 after Lewis had died during the making of the film. He played the lead role of Indigenous WW1 hero Douglas Grant, while also commenting on the state of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal relations from his own personal perspective. A reviewer in The Guardian wrote: "...one leaves the film with a powerful impression of Lewis as an artist and an intellect; as a person fascinated by stories and compelled towards the process of artistic creation".[ 36]

Lewis played the didgeridu, flute, clarinet, and guitar.[ 37] [ 38] [ 39] In the 1990s he toured in acclaimed jazz duo, Lewis & Young, through Europe, Asia, and Australia.[ 38] [ 39] He has played with Jane Rutter, Eve Duncan, Uli Klein, and composer George Dreyfus.[ 37]

In 2005, he released the album Sunshine After Rain through label Skinnyfish Music.[ 40] In 2013, he released Beneath the Sun, also through the Skinnyfish label.[ 41]

He plays didgeridu on the albums Recorded Messages: Violin (2000), played by violinist Eve Duncan,[ 42] and Ambient Voice (2001), with vocals by Dean Frenkel.[ 43]

Lewis participated in the promotion of Melbourne's bid for the 1996 Olympic Games.[ 38] In 2000 Lewis he ran with the Olympic torch in Melbourne.

Lewis was married to Fleur Parry,[ 35] a theatre manager, and they had a daughter together. He also had other children.[ 38]

In a 2007 interview, Lewis said that Northern Territory senator Bob Collins, who died a few days before he was due to face court on child sex abuse, had abused him as a child.[ 38] He went through a period of alcohol abuse and estrangement from his family and community.

Lewis, helped by his wife,[ 38] reclaimed his life and cultural traditions, moving to Wugularr (Beswick) in South Arnhem Land, in 2001.[ 44]

He founded a cultural foundation, the Djilpin Arts Aboriginal Corporation,[ 44] [ 35] which hosts the "Walking with Spirits" festival at Beswick Falls each year.[ 45] [ 38] [ 46] Journalist Jeff McMullen, who was a long-time friend of Lewis,[ 21] was patron of the Walking with Spirits festival.[ 47] The organisation has been described "as one of his largest legacies".[ 21]

Lewis died of a heart attack on 10 May 2018 in Katherine, Northern Territory.

In 2000 Lewis was chosen to run with the Olympic torch in Melbourne.

A photographic portrait of Lewis by Juno Gemes was purchased by the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra in 2021. The description says: "The magnetic and charming personality which made Lewis such a compelling and successful actor is captured in Juno Gemes' portrait. With his leather jacket, white shirt and aviator sunglasses, Lewis invokes the feeling of James Dean as he poses against a wall papered with posters announcing upcoming gigs at the Sydney Trade Union Club in Surry Hills".[ 48] Also held by the gallery is a photograph of an older Lewis, pulling a boat behind him, after "return[ing] to his grandmother's country to learn the songs of his ancestors". The photograph, taken by Philip Myers, was a finalist in the 2017 National Photographic Portrait Prize.[ 49]

He was described in a Guardian article following his death as "a giant in the remote Arnhem Land community".[ 35]

Lewis was also the recipient of various awards and honours, including: