Uncle Jack Charles, a well-known Aboriginal Australian actor, passed away at the age of 79.
Charles is revered by many as the father of Indigenous theater and appeared in a number of notable Australian films over the course of a long career.
His work also explored how trauma had caused him to spend years abusing drugs and engaging in criminal activity after being taken from his parents as a baby and mistreated in state care.
Following a stroke, Charles passed away quietly on Tuesday in a hospital in Melbourne, according to his spokesperson.
Readers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent should be aware that this article contains photographs of deceased people. The usage of his name and picture has the approval of his family.
In 1971, Charles helped Melbourne become home to Australia’s first Aboriginal-run theater company. He has acted in well-known Australian movies as Bedevil (1993), Blackfellas, and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978). (1993).
Charles, a member of the Stolen Generations, was taken from his mother against her will at the age of four months as part of the now-famous programs intended to “assimilate” Aboriginal children into European homes.
In 2008, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized publicly to the Stolen Generations.
