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Eva Johnson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Eva Johnston.

Eva Johnson
Born1946 (age 78–79)
Daly River, Northern Territory
Other namesEva Birrit (film credit)
Occupationplaywright
Awards1993 Red Ochre Award

Eva Knowles Johnson (born 1946) is an Aboriginal Australian poet, actor, director, and playwright. She is known for directing the first Aboriginal Women's Arts Festival in Adelaide in 1985, for which she wrote the play Tjindarella.

Early life and education

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Eva Knowles Johnson[1][2] was born in 1946 at Daly River in the Northern Territory. She belongs to the Malak Malak people, an Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory.[3] At the age of two, Johnson was taken from her mother and placed on a Methodist Mission on Croker Island, Northern Territory. Aged 10, she was transferred to an orphanage in Adelaide.[4]

Johnson gained an associate diploma in community development at the South Australian Institute of Technology and also studied for a degree in Aboriginal studies at the University of Adelaide.[4]

Career

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Johnson has worked as an enrolled nurse,[4] poet, actor, director, playwright, and teacher.[5]

She began writing in 1978. Her first poem became the title of the first play ever produced by Black Theatre in Adelaide, When I Die You'll All Stop Laughing.[4][6] The satirical revue was performed in the Union Hall at the University of Adelaide in 1978.[7]

Johnson played the part of Alice Wilson (credited as Eva Birrit) in the fourth segment of the 1981 award-winning TV series Women of the Sun.[8][9][10]

Aboriginal Women's Arts Festival and Tjindarella

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Johnson's play Tjindarella examined the oppression of Aboriginal Australians and highlighted the effects of government policy on the forced removal of children from their parents and culture.[11]

In February to March 1985[12][13] Johnson directed the first Aboriginal Women's Arts Festival in Adelaide, at which Tjindarella was performed[4] from 1 to 16 February 1985.[14][15][a] A grassroots group called Black Women In Focus had been formed in 1983,[18] dedicated to organising this nation-first gathering of Aboriginal women artists. The event took place over two and a half weeks, and showcased Aboriginal women's art, performance, and ceremony in high-profile venues in Adelaide, such as the Adelaide Festival Centre, for the first time. The group had to apply for an exemption to the Sex Discrimination Act to bar men from attending a sacred women's ceremony on the River Torrens, which as run by senior law women of a desert people.[19][20][21]

At least two runs of T-shirts were printed for the event: one in yellow, with the word "Tjindarella" and a design used for the play posters; and a white T-shirt emblazoned with the words "1st Aboriginal Women's Arts Festival Adelaide 1985", with both designs now held in the National Museum of Australia.[22][23] An original poster for Tjindarella is also held at the museum, showing the subtitle "Cinderella in black with dance, music and song".[14]

The festival was remembered by participants 40 years later, including Wakka Wakka woman Jo Willmot, who had been working in the Office of the Status of Women at the time it was conceived. In March 2025, the Festival Centre mounted the "Black Women BACK in Focus" retrospective exhibition, organised by First Nations programming executive Celia Coulthard. The displays included newspaper clippings, photographs, and interviews.[19]

Other plays

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In 1988 her play Murras was produced at the Adelaide Fringe, and later for the Black Theatre Season at Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney.[16] In 1989 Johnson's play Mimini's Voices was produced by Magpie Theatre in Adelaide and later restaged in 1990 as part of the Hiroshima Arts Festival in Japan, where it won the Festival Peace Prize awarded by the Lord Mayor of Hiroshima.[16][24]

In January 1990 her play What Do They Call Me? was produced at the inaugural Lesbian Festival in Melbourne,[16] directed by Venetia Guillot and performed by Johnson.[25][26] It was also performed at the Lion Arts Centre for the 1990 Adelaide Fringe Festival,[27] at the 4th International Feminist Book Fair in Barcelona, Spain,[28][29][30] and in Sydney in 1991.[31] The play tells the story of one family's experience of the Stolen Generation as told by the mother and her two daughters,[16] with all three characters performed by Johnson. Three actors performed the play in a production directed by Eva Grace Mullaley in Perth in 2014.[32] The play was included in Australian gay and lesbian plays, edited by Bruce Parr and published in 1996.[33]

Other plays written by Johnson in the 1990s include Heart Beat of the Earth, Two Bob in the Quid, and Mimini's Voices.[24] Johnson's writing addresses themes of cultural identity, Aboriginal Australian women's rights, the Stolen Generations, land rights, slavery, sexism, and homophobia.[34]

Other activities

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In 1987 Johnson was writer/director of the first National Black Playwrights Conference in Canberra, organised by Brian Syron, from which the Aboriginal National Theatre Trust was developed.[35][36][28]

As of 2012 she was living in Adelaide, and was invited as a guest speaker at various educational institutions.[24]

Influence and awards

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Johnson contributed to the representation of Aboriginal women on the stage.[11]

In 1985 Johnson was awarded the Aboriginal Artist of the Year Award.[5]

In 1993, she was awarded the inaugural Red Ochre Award by the Australia Council for the Arts, which is presented to an outstanding Aboriginal Australian or Torres Strait Islander artist who has made substantial contributions to arts and culture nationally or internationally.[3][28]

Selected works

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  • "A letter to my mother" (poem, 1985)[37]
  • When I Die You'll All Stop Laughing (poem and then play)
  • Faded Genes (revue, 1979)[38]
  • Mimini's Voices[39][28]
  • Murras (play, 1989)[40][28]
  • Onward To Glory (play)[28]
  • Tjindarella (play, 1985)[41][28]
  • What do they call me (play, 1990)[42][28]
  • Heartbeat of the Earth

Footnotes

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  1. ^ It was reported int at least two sources as being performed at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 1984,[16][17] but this is not correct, as there is no record to confirm this in Trove, and according to AustLit, the play was written for the Aboriginal Women's Arts Festival.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "Eva Knowles Johnson and the "Stolen Generations"". Carolyn Gage. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
  2. ^ Gibson, Johanna (6 December 2019). Owned, An Ethological Jurisprudence of Property: From the Cave to the Commons. Routledge. p. 99. ISBN 978-1-000-02720-4.
  3. ^ a b Red Ochre Award Archived 1 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Eva Johnson". AustLit. 4 July 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2025.
  5. ^ a b "The Academy literature and Drama website". Archived from the original on 8 March 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  6. ^ When I Die You'll All Stop Laughing, Union Hall, Adelaide, SA, 1978 [Event description], 1978, retrieved 5 August 2014
  7. ^ "When I Die You'll All Stop Laughing". AusStage. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
  8. ^ Kalina,Paul "Return to women of the sun", The Age
  9. ^ "Women of the Sun". Ronin Films. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
  10. ^ Women of the Sun: 25 Years Later Archived 11 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine Australian Film Commission
  11. ^ a b Heiss, Anita (2003), Dhuuluu-yala = to talk straight : publishing indigenous literature, Aboriginal Studies Press, ISBN 978-0-85575-444-0
  12. ^ Artspace (Adelaide, South Australia) : ephemeral materials], Adelaide Festival Centre, 1983, retrieved 29 March 2025, People poles : by Chris Barker in conjunction with the Aboriginal women's arts Festival, 2 January to 10 February 1985 (1985)
  13. ^ "Ban order on men at dance". The Canberra Times. Vol. 59, no. 18, 023. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 1 February 1985. p. 7. Retrieved 29 March 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ^ a b Aboriginal Women's Arts Festival (1984), Aboriginal Women's Arts Festival presents; Tjindarella, Cinderella in black with dance, music and song (catalogue entry for photo), retrieved 30 March 2025 – via Trove, "Cindarella (sic) in black with dance, music and song / a play by Eva Johnson / Feb 1-16, Wed-Sat / Space Theatre
  15. ^ "ABC Radio: The Coming Out Show". Tribune. No. 2364. New South Wales, Australia. 20 February 1985. p. 14. Retrieved 29 March 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^ a b c d e Ryan, Simon; Ryan, Delyse. "Eva Johnson 1946-". The Academy. Playwrights. Australian Catholic University. Archived from the original on 10 November 2016.
  17. ^ Casey, Maryrose (2004). Creating Frames: Contemporary Indigenous Theatre 1967-1990. Univ. of Queensland Press. p. 253. ISBN 978-0-7022-3432-3.
  18. ^ "Lincoln woman takes part in art festival". Port Lincoln Times. South Australia. 1 February 1985. p. 3. Retrieved 29 March 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. ^ a b Carbone, Isabella (27 March 2025). "Archival materials shine light on 'groundbreaking' arts event that 'broke down barriers' for First Nations women". ABC News. Retrieved 30 March 2025.
  20. ^ "Ban order on men at dance". The Canberra Times. Vol. 59, no. 18, 023. 1 February 1985. p. 7. Retrieved 29 March 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  21. ^ "Human Rights Commission Sex Discrimination Act 1984 Section 46 Notice of grant of exemption No. 1 of 1985". Commonwealth Of Australia Gazette. Special. No. S63. 28 February 1985. p. 1. Retrieved 29 March 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  22. ^ Yellow t-shirt with Aboriginal Women's Arts Festival and 'Tjindarella' emblem, 1984, retrieved 30 March 2025 – via Trove | access-date=30 March 2025}}
  23. ^ 1st Aboriginal Womens Arts Festival Adelaide 1985 (catalogue entry for photo), 1984, retrieved 30 March 2025 – via Trove
  24. ^ a b c "Adelaide 2012 women's luncheon program". The Long Walk. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  25. ^ "What Do They Call Me? [Melbourne]". AusStage. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
  26. ^ "Melb's lesbian festival films not censored". The Canberra Times. Vol. 64, no. 20, 005. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 19 January 1990. p. 2. Retrieved 29 March 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  27. ^ "What Do They Call Me? [Adelaide]". AusStage. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
  28. ^ a b c d e f g h Australia Council. (1975), "The Year in Review", Annual report, Parliamentary paper (Australia. Parliament) (1993/1994, PP no. 241 of 1994), Canberra: Australian Govt. Pub. Service, ISSN 0725-7643, nla.obj-1800432841, retrieved 29 March 2025 – via Trove
  29. ^ "International Feminist Book Fair" (PDF). Archive No. 133. Victorian Women's Liberation and Lesbian Feminist Archives. 2009. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
  30. ^ "The forgotten women's writing festivals by Susan Hawthorne". Australian Women Writers Challenge Blog. 6 May 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
  31. ^ "What Do They Call Me? [Sydney]". AusStage. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
  32. ^ D'Anger, Jenny (18 September 2014). "Finding self". Perth Voice Interactive. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
  33. ^ Parr, Bruce (1996), Australian gay and lesbian plays / edited by Bruce Parr (library catalogue entry), Currency Press, ISBN 0868194557, retrieved 29 March 2025 – via National Library of Australia
  34. ^ Burrell, Jocelyn, ed. (2004). Word : on being a [woman] writer. Foreword by Suheir Hammad (1st ed.). New York: Feminist Press. ISBN 1558614672.
  35. ^ "Eva Johnson". AustLit. 4 July 2017. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  36. ^ Kearney, Briann; Syron, Brian (2016). Kicking Down the Doors. p. 220-222. ISBN 978-1-329-91764-4.
  37. ^ Johnson, Eva (1985), A letter to my mother [poem], retrieved 5 August 2014
  38. ^ Faded Genes (1979) [Event Description], 1979, retrieved 29 March 2025
  39. ^ Mimini's Voices, Odeon Theatre, Norwood, SA, 12 September 1989 [Event description], 1989, retrieved 6 August 2014
  40. ^ Johnson, Eva (1989), Murras, retrieved 5 August 2014
  41. ^ Tjindarella, by Eva Johnson : [theatre program], 1985, Space Theatre, 1985, retrieved 5 August 2014
  42. ^ Johnson, Eva (1991), What do they call me, retrieved 5 August 2014

Further reading

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  • France, Anna Kay; Corso, Paula Jo (1993), International women playwrights : voices of identity and transformation : proceedings of the First International Women Playwrights Conference, October 18–23, 1988, Scarecrow Press, ISBN 978-0-8108-2782-0
  • Johnson, Eva (1993), "Aboriginality and feminism: an interview with Aboriginal playwright, Eva Johnson.", Social Alternatives, 12 (1): 13–15, ISSN 0155-0306
  • Klein, Renate; Hawthorne, Susan (1994), Australia for women : travel and culture, Spinifex Press, ISBN 978-1-875559-27-5
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