Bob Maza AM 1939-2000

Back in Melbourne he and his friend, Koori actor Jack Charles, appeared in a breakthrough revue called Jack Charles is Up and Fighting. This was the inaugural production of Nindethana (‘a place for social gatherings’), a spin-off from the New Theatre Movement. Material for the revue came from Maza, Frank Hardy and Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal), among others; one of Maza’s contributions was a piece on the tragic Indigenous actor Robert Tudawali, the star of the film Jedda. New Theatre’s Dot Thompson directed. Jack Charles, with its confronting subtitle, ‘It’s tough for us Boongs in Australia today,’ played a short but successful season at Melbourne University’s Guild Theatre in March 1972; it was later seen at Monash University and at the Aboriginal Arts Seminar in Canberra, where the Tent Embassy had recently been established.

In mid 1972 Maza moved to Sydney to help establish National Black Theatre. As artistic director he told the press, ‘Black Theatre is geared to communicate with people, not just to entertain. We want to make people commit themselves to social responsibilities.’ National Black Theatre’s first production was the revue Basically Black, presented in November 1972 at the Nimrod Street Theatre. The cast included Maza and young actor and activist Gary Foley; Ken Horler directed. In The Australian, Katharine Brisbane described it as ‘an enjoyable and completely unpolished evening to be recommended to everyone.’ Its subsequent tour of Queensland met a far less friendly reception, though the ABC televised a version of the show in 1973. By then promised Federal funding had not materialised, and National Black Theatre was disbanded.

Maza was instrumental in setting up a replacement – the Aboriginal Black Theatre Arts and Cultural Centre in Redfern. It was opened by singer Harold Blair in July 1974, with Maza as artistic director. There, in January 1975, Maza tackled his first directorial assignment – the premiere of Robert Merritt’s only play, The Cake Man. Enormously successful, it was the first Indigenous play to be published, televised, and tour internationally. Later Maza directed Roger Bennett’s Up the Ladder (1989), Jack Davis’ No Sugar (1994) and Owen Love’s No Shame (1995).

As a stage actor Maza’s many credits included Eric Bentley’s Are You Now, or Have You Ever Been? (1976), Thomas Keneally’s Bullie’s House (1980) and Michael Frayn’s Clouds (1980) – all for Nimrod. On television he appeared in Women of the Sun (1981), A Country Practice (1982), Heartland (which he also co-wrote, 1994), A Difficult Woman (1998) and Wildside (1998). His major films include The Fringe Dwellers (1986), Ground Zero (1987), The Nostradamus Kid (1993), Reckless Kelly (1993), Lilian’s Story (1995) and Back of Beyond (1995). His plays include Mereki, Tiddalik, Rain for Christmas, and, most notably, The Keepers. Performed at the Adelaide Fringe Festival and at Belvoir Street Theatre in 1988, it was a passionate exploration of the destruction of the Buandig people of South Australia, and won Maza the National Black Playwright Award. His radio play Sugarbag was commissioned by the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse.