Bill Onus

William Townsend Onus Jr (15 November 1906 – 10 January 1968), known as Bill Onus, was an Aboriginal Australian political activist and showman, also known for his boomerang-throwing skills.

Early life and education[]

Onus was born at the Cummeragunja Aboriginal Reserve in New South Wales to William Townsend Onus Sr and Maud Mary Onus, née Nelson. His father was of Wiradjuri background and his mother of the Yorta Yorta people, and he had a brother, Eric.^[1]

He was educated at Thomas Shadrach James' mission school in Cummeragunja as well as spending two years at school in Echuca from the age of ten.^[1]

As a teenager his family travelled throughout the Riverina while his father worked as a drover.^[1]

Working life[]

At the age of 16, Onus left home to take up shearing, an occupation in which stayed for seven years.^[1]

In 1928 Onus moved to Sydney, where he initially worked at the Bankstown Aerodrome as a rigger. During the Great Depression Onus took a number of jobs, including prospecting and truck-driving.^[1]

During the late 1930s, Onus joined the Aborigines Progressive Association, later becoming secretary and becoming a full-time employee of the association.^[1]

In 1936, Onus appeared in Charles Chauvel's feature film Uncivilised, then in 1937 had an acting role in Ken G.Hall's romantic melodrama Lovers and Luggers (retitled Vengeance of the Deep in the US and UK^[2]).^[1]

In 1939 he returned home to take part in the Cummeragunja walk-off,^[3] which was one of the earliest mass protests of Indigenous Australians.^[4] After this he and his family lived in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy and Onus joined forces with pastor and later co-founder of the Aboriginal Advancement League (AAL) Doug Nicholls.^[3]

Moving to Northern Territory for the filming of Harry Watt's classic film The Overlanders in 1945, Onus saw Aboriginal stockmen being treated violently and being chained up.^[3] After completing filming, he moved back to Melbourne, where he worked for a shipping company as a clerk.^[1]

It was only discovered in 2021 that Onus made a short (nine-and-a-half-minute) film in 1946, making him possibly the first Aboriginal filmmaker. The film features a play written by him about the Pilbara strike called White Justice. The film was never released (possibly due to pressures exerted on potential distributors by ASIO) and ended up in the National Film and Sound Archive years later.^[3]

In 1949, Onus organised an Indigenous revue which brought together traditional ceremonies and acts with more contemporary acts and Indigenous artists. The revue was called Corroboree 1949 and was performed in Melbourne at Wirth's Olympia. The acts included Margaret Tucker, Edgar Bux, Miss Georgie Lee, May Lovett, Joyce McKinnon, Ted 'Chook' Mullett and his Gum Street Band. In 1951, Bill Onus and Doug Nicholls organised another Indigenous revue entitled An Aboriginal Moomba: Out of the Dark which included Indigenous opera singer Harold Blair and Indigenous blues singer Georgia Lee in the line up. In 1955 Bill Onus suggested the name for the Moomba festival in Melbourne.^[5][6]

In 1952, Onus started the business venture "Aboriginal Enterprise Novelties", which produced collectables and souvenirs with Aboriginal motifs. By the end of the decade, he had his own factory and shop. He became known as a boomerang-thrower as he hawked his goods.^[1]

He became a leader of Aboriginal Victorians in the fight for the "yes" vote in the 1967 referendum, as president of the AAL.^[3]

Death[]

Onus died in 1968 of a coronary occlusion.^[1]

In film[]

Movies[]

Onus had roles in a series of Australian feature films, including:^[1]

• Uncivilised (1936)
• Lovers and Luggers (1937) (retitled Vengeance of the Deep in the US and UK^[2])
• The Overlanders (1946)

Documentaries[]

• He appeared with Doug Nicholls in the nine-minute-long documentary Forgotten People (1967), produced by the Aborigines Advancement League.^[7]
• Presenter of the Alcheringa documentary series on ABC Television (1962).^[1][8]
• Maker of White Justice (1946), which features Reg Saunders, Doug Nicholls, his brother Eric and sister-in-law Wynne, and many then-residents of Fitzroy.^[3]
• Subject of the 82-minute film Ablaze, made by his grandson, opera singer , co-directed with (director of the documentary Lousy Little Sixpence (1983)), premiering in the Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2021, after six years in the making.^[3][9]

References[]

Eckersley, M. 2012. Australian Indigenous Drama. Tasman Press. Altona.

External links[]

• Bill Onus at IMDb