Uncle Jack Charles: the ‘lost boy’ who found his way through storytelling

“Once a lost boy, now found” is how Aboriginal activist, musician and actor Jack Charles described himself upon learning his father’s identity in 2021. The Boon Wurrung, Dja Dja Wurrung, Woiwurrung and Yorta Yorta man, who was forcibly taken from his mother as a baby and assigned a criminal record, refused to be engulfed by the circumstances of his history. Instead, Charles’ spirited resilience, despite an early life of wretched adversity, saw him become one of Australia’s most respected and cherished elders.

Jack Charles, who has died in a Melbourne hospital aged 79, was a survivor of the Stolen Generations policy of assimilation. He experienced sexual abuse as a child while in the care of the state and, in the face of recurrent despair and discrimination, turned to heroin and crime before discovering theatre and a passion for acting. There he found he was able to share the painful stories of his life through drama and storytelling and, in 1971, co-founded Australia’s first Indigenous-run theatre company, Nindethana, meaning “place for a corroboree”.

Charles a year before he had to leave Box Hill Boys’ Home.

In 1971 Charles missed out on the role of Aboriginal TV detective Boney but went on to appear in several films, including The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978) and Blackfellas (1993) and in TV programs such as Cleverman, Wolf Creek, Mystery Road and Play School. The 2011 Helpmann Award-winning play, Jack Charles V The Crown, in which he voiced his life story alone on stage, was just one of hundreds of theatre performances.

“I like to think of myself as a blackfella sans frontières, a blackfella without borders. I get to play all manner of blackfellas from different parts of the nation and countries here in Australia, so that’s who I am,” he said.

Jack Charles was born in Carlton, Victoria, in 1943 to Blanche Charles and, as he later discovered, was one of 13 children. In a 2021 interview, he said it was the policy that he be “taken from his mother’s breast directly” but before the protection officers could do so, his mother sneaked away. They travelled to Daish’s Paddock near Shepparton to an Aboriginal camp and it was from there that, four months later, he was forcibly taken from his mother, made a ward of the state of Victoria and ascribed a criminal record.

“So, my first offence … was as an Aboriginal boy, four months old, child in need of care and attention. That was the offence,” he said.

At two years old, he was sent to Box Hill Boys’ Home where he lived until he was 14, the only registered Aboriginal boy there. Here he was teased about his skin colour and “whitewashed” of his family and race. Along with verbal cruelty, Charles and other boys faced sexual abuse. In 2022, Charles was the first to appear at the Yoorrook Justice Commission’s hearing where his testimony included a recount of spending his first night in jail as 16-year-old after going to a pub to learn his mother’s whereabouts. At the time living in a foster home and nearing the end of a glass beveller’s apprenticeship, he recalled in his biography crying himself to sleep.

A further 21 incarcerations followed over the next three decades for crimes related to heroin addiction and burglary, interspersed with sleeping rough and occasional acting roles. He found drugs “dulled the memories and pain” of his past.

During this time, Charles became known for his brilliant acting and as an activist and mentor to others in jail. He and Ernie Dingo teamed up to support Indigenous inmates and to promote the Raise the Age campaign to keep young Indigenous children out of jail.

In 2021, Charles’ family history was scrutinised for the program Who Do You Think You Are. While he had learned his mother was still alive and had tracked down five of his 11 living siblings, he knew nothing of his father. Much to Charles’ delight and surprise, the program revealed him to be a snappy dressing Yorta Yorta man named Hilton Hamilton Walsh. However, he never got to meet his father.

“I do have this profound sense of piss-offedness with the belated discovery [of my father],” he said. “My story has been lost and, in a way, with this story here, I have been healed again. It is never too late to learn who you are.”

In 2015, hours after being named Victorian Senior Australian of the Year, Charles was twice refused a taxi. When it happened again the following year, he had a message for taxi companies.

“You need a bastard like me. A deadest, ridgy-didge, beyond redemption bastard like me to take on the taxi industry, to take on the challenge,” he said in response.

Charles was named Naidoc’s male elder of the year in 2022 and was awarded the Tudawali award in 2009, honouring his lifetime contribution to Indigenous media.

Jack Charles, actor, musician and activist, born 1943; died 13 September 2022