Tom E. Lewis

Balang Lewis, also known as Balang T.E. Lewis{{cite web | title=Balang T E Lewis, b. 1958 | website=National Portrait Gallery people | date=2021 | url=https://www.portrait.gov.au/people/balang-t-e-lewis-1958-69673 | access-date=11 March 2025| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241207081143/https://portrait.gov.au/people/balang-t-e-lewis-1958-69673| archive-date= 7 Dec 2024| url-status=live}} or Tom E. Lewis, was born on 25 August 1958 on the banks of the Roper River in Ngukurr, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.{{cite web | title=About | website=Djilpin Arts | url=https://www.djilpinarts.org.au/djilpinarts | access-date=12 March 2025}}{{cite web | title=Tom E Lewis | website=ABC listen | date=5 July 2017 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/spiritofthings/tom-e.-lewis/8680402 | access-date=11 March 2025}} His father was a Welsh stockman called Hurtle Lewis, but he left the family when Lewis was young. His mother, artist Angelina George, was of the Murrungun, Wandarrang, and Mara peoples, and he was brought up in traditional culture in Arnhem Land.

After leaving school at the age of 12, he worked as a bricklayer and stockman to support the family, and then went to Darwin to train as a mechanic.

On 3 May 1985, Lewis appeared alongside Ernie Dingo, Richard Walley, Justine Saunders, and others in Bullie's House at Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut, United States.{{cite web | title=Bullie's House | website=AusStage| url=https://ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/128070 | access-date=12 March 2025}}

From around 1989, he spent many years working in the Melbourne theatre scene, having worked with Playbox (later Malthouse), Melbourne Theatre Company, Melbourne Workers Theatre, and Handspan Theatres.

In 1997, Lewis acted in Up the Ladder, written by Roger Bennett and directed by Wesley Enoch, which toured Victoria and New South Wales.{{cite web | title=Up the Ladders | website=AusStage| url=https://ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/11613 | access-date=12 March 2025}}

With Handspan, he devised the internationally successful Lift 'Em Up Socks, a semi-autobiographical multi-media work that premiered in April 2000.{{cite web | title=Lift 'Em Up Socks | website=AusStage | url=https://ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/126079 | access-date=12 March 2025}} He performed on stage with a marionette operated by Rod Primrose.{{cite web | title=Lift 'Em Up Socks | website=Handspan Theatre | date=5 April 2000 | url=http://handspantheatre.com.au/info/Lift+%27Em+Up+Socks | access-date=12 March 2025}}

In May 2006, he played Othello at the Amphitheatre of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, in the Darwin Theatre Company's production of Shakespeare's classic directed by John du Feu.{{cite web | title=Othello | website=AusStage | url=https://ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/69168 | access-date=12 March 2025}}

In 2012, he starred alongside Helen Morse in Tim Winton's Signs of Life, a Black Swan Theatre / Sydney Theatre Company co-production,{{cite web | title=Signs of Life | website=AusStage| url=https://ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/105410 | access-date=12 March 2025}} which toured Western Australia before a final performance in the Sydney Opera House.

{{anchor|sk}}In 2013, Lewis co-created, with Michael Kantor for Malthouse Theatre, a play titled The Shadow King,{{cite web | title=The Shadow King [Melbourne Festival 2013] | website=AusStage | url=https://ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/105428 | access-date=12 March 2025}}{{cite web | title=The Shadow King [Sydney Festival 2014]| website=AusStage | url=https://ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/108414 | access-date=12 March 2025}} described as "an Indigenous version of King Lear".{{cite web|title=Campfire king Tom E. Lewis delivers an indigenous version of King Lear|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/campfire-king-tom-e-lewis-delivers-an-indigenous-version-of-king-lear/story-fn9n8gph-1226732156987?nk=05eb4751277e0c835e50b25cabc14943|website=The Australian|accessdate=30 November 2014}} The play premiered at the Melbourne Festival in October 2013, before touring around the country, playing at Carriageworks for the Sydney Festival, Her Majesty's Theatre for the Adelaide Festival,{{cite web | title=The Shadow King [Adelaide Festival 2014] | website=AusStage | url=https://ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/106907 | access-date=12 March 2025}} and also in Perth, Katherine, Brisbane, and Darwin, all in 2014.{{cite web | title=Tom E Lewis | website=AusStage | url=https://ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/3608 | access-date=12 March 2025}} In June 2016, the Malthouse Theatre production, directed by Kantor and with most of the original cast, was performed in the Barbican Theatre in London.{{cite web | title=The Shadow King [Barbican Theatre] | website=AusStage | url=https://ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/155043 | access-date=12 March 2025}}{{cite web | title=Review: The Shadow King at the Barbican | website=Exeunt Magazine | date=24 June 2016 | url=https://exeuntmagazine.com/reviews/review-shadow-king-barbican/ | access-date=12 March 2025}}{{cite web | last=Gardner | first=Lyn | title=The Shadow King review – Lear gambols to his fate in the desert | website=The Guardian | date=26 June 2016 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/jun/26/the-shadow-king-review-lear-gambols-to-his-fate-in-the-desert | access-date=12 March 2025}}{{cite web | last=Loxton | first=Howard | title=Theatre review: The Shadow King from Malthouse Theatre at Barbican Theatre | website=British Theatre Guide | date=23 June 2016 | url=https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/the-shadow-king-barbican-theatr-12995 | access-date=12 March 2025}}

The lead role in the Fred Schepisi's 1978 film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith was Lewis' first film role, after he had been spotted by casting director Rhonda Schepisi, wife of the director.

In 2007 he co-directed, with Julia Morris, a music video, Warrk Warrk (Black Crow), and in 2008 directed a short film, One River, All Rivers. Both were screened at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto, Canada.{{cite web | title=The 9th Annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival Ends Another Successful Year and Hands Out A Host of Awards | website=NationTalk | date=11 March 2025 | url=https://nationtalk.ca/story/the-9th-annual-imaginenative-film-media-arts-festival-ends-another-successful-year-and-hands-out-a-host-of-awards | access-date=12 March 2025}}

He co-wrote (with his wife Fleur Parry) a 25-minute documentary film, Yellow Fella, about his experience of coming from a mixed race heritage,{{cite web |title=Yellow fella |url=http://link.dppl.org/portal/Yellow-fella/x45AePLzink/ |website=Des Plaines Public Library |format= library catalogue entry|access-date=20 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230725134938/https://link.dppl.org/portal/Yellow-fella/x45AePLzink/| archive-date= 25 July 2023}}{{cite web | title=YELLOW FELLA [from the CAAMA Collection] | website=Ronin Films | url=https://www.roninfilms.com.au/feature/2299/yellow-fella-from-caama-collection.html | access-date=12 March 2025}} for which he was awarded the 2005 Bob Maza Fellowship by the Australian Film Commission.{{cite web | title=Bob Maza Fellowship | website=AustLit | url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/v1692 | access-date=18 December 2021}} Directed by Ivan Sen, it was selected to screen at the Cannes Film Festival, the first Australian Indigenous documentary ever chosen for Official Selection.{{cite web |title=Loved Up – Yellow Fella |url=https://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/yellow-fella/notes/ |website=Australian Screen |access-date=20 December 2021 |language=en}}

He had roles in We of the Never Never (1982), The Proposition (2005), and Crocodile Dreaming (2006), and played one of the leading roles in the psychological thriller Red Hill (2010).{{cite web | last=Miska | first=Brad | title=A Sales Explosion for Arclight's Revenge Thriller ‘Red Hill’ | website=Bloody Disgusting! | date=18 February 2010 | url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/19167/ | access-date=11 March 2025}} He was also in Goldstone, directed by Ivan Sen (2016). One of his last major acting roles was in Boori Monty Pryor's 2018 four-part comedy drama miniseries Wrong Kind of Black.{{Cite news|last=Zeims|first=Mitch|date=July 23, 2018|title=Review: Aboriginal Storyteller Boori Monty Pryor on Being the Wrong Kind of Black|work=The 8 Percent|url=https://the8percent.com/the-wrong-kind-of-black/}}

In 2014 the hour-long documentary film about the life of didgeridoo player David Blanasi, Kundirri: The Life and Legacy of David Blanasi was released by Djilpin Arts.{{cite journal| url=https://anka.org.au/assets/Archive/Arts-Backbone/Backbone-Vol-14-Issue-1-Aug-2014.pdf| title= Djilpin Arts, The Company of People| first= Fleur| last=Parry| p=3| journal= ANKAAA Arts Backbone| publisher= ANKAAA| volume =14| issue =1| date= August 2014}}{{cite web | title=Kundirri The Life and Legacy of David Blanasi | website=AustLit | date=15 October 2014 | url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/7937665 | access-date=16 March 2025}}{{cite web| url=https://www.rmkcrew.com.au/media/Julia_Morris_RMK_CV_feb2018.pdf| title=Julia Morris| publisher=RMK Crew| access-date=16 March 2025}} The film was co-written by Lewis and his wife Fleur Parry, co-directed by Lewis and Julia Morris, and co-produced by Parry and Morris.{{cite web | title=Kundirri The Life and Legacy of David Blanasi | website= Documentary Australia Foundation (archived) | via= Trove | date=21 March 2012 | url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20120320195935/http://www.documentaryaustralia.com.au/index.php/films/details/1513/kundirri-the-life-and-legacy-of-david-blanasi | access-date=16 March 2025}}

Finding Maawirrangga (2017) is a documentary short written by Lewis and co-directed by Dylan River Glynn McDonald. It was produced by Julia Morris, and executive produced by Fleur Parry, and screened at the 2017 Sydney Film Festival{{cite web | title=Finding Maawirrangga (2017) | website=Screen Australia | url=https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/the-screen-guide/t/finding-maawirrangga-2017/34963/ | access-date=12 March 2025}} and 2018 Flickerfest.{{cite web | title=Finding Maawirrangga | website=Flickerfest | date=12 March 2025 | url=https://flickerfest.com.au/film/finding-maawirrangga/ | access-date=12 March 2025}} After his death in May 2018, it screened at the inaugural Northern Territory Travelling Film Festival in June of that year. The film tells of Lewis' return to his grandmother's country to learn his songlines, and in it he also relates how he contravened some cultural norms on stage.

His final movie role was in the documentary-drama The Skin of Others directed by Tom Murray, released posthumously in 2020 after Lewis had died during the making of the film. He played the lead role of Indigenous WW1 hero Douglas Grant, while also commenting on the state of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal relations from his own personal perspective. A reviewer in The Guardian wrote: "...one leaves the film with a powerful impression of Lewis as an artist and an intellect; as a person fascinated by stories and compelled towards the process of artistic creation".{{Cite news |last=Buckmaster |first=Luke |date=10 June 2020 |title=The Skin of Others review – Balang Tom E Lewis's final film is a fascinating look at the life of Douglas Grant |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jun/10/the-skin-of-others-review-balang-tom-e-lewiss-final-film-is-a-fascinating-look-at-the-life-of-douglas-grant |access-date=22 July 2022}}

Lewis played the didgeridu, flute, clarinet, and guitar.{{cite web | title=Music from Tom E Lewis (not in podcast) | website=ABC Radio National | date=5 June 2011 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/listen/radionational/archived/bushtelegraph/music-from-tom-e-lewis-not-in-podcast/2914006 | access-date=12 March 2025}}{{cite web | last=Roberts | first=Greg | title=Actor Tom E Lewis dies aged 59 | website=Blue Mountains Gazette | date=11 May 2018 | url=https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/5395513/actor-tom-e-lewis-dies-aged-59/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511102031/https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/5395513/actor-tom-e-lewis-dies-aged-59/ | archive-date=11 May 2018 | url-status=live | access-date=12 March 2025| url-access=subscription}}{{cite web | title=Tom E. Lewis | website=Move Records | url=http://www.move.com.au/artist/tom-e-lewis | access-date=12 March 2025}} In the 1990s he toured in acclaimed jazz duo, Lewis & Young, through Europe, Asia, and Australia. He has played with Jane Rutter, Eve Duncan, Uli Klein, and composer George Dreyfus.

In 2005, he released the album Sunshine After Rain through label Skinnyfish Music.{{cite web | title=Tom E. Lewis – Sunshine After Rain – CD (), 2005 [r15789692] | website=Discogs | date=19 March 2023 | url=https://www.discogs.com/release/15789692-Tom-E-Lewis-Sunshine-After-Rain | access-date=12 March 2025}} In 2013, he released Beneath the Sun, also through the Skinnyfish label.{{cite web | title=Tom E. Lewis – Beneath The Sun – CD (Album), 2013 [r6746415] | website=Discogs | date=27 January 2022 | url=https://www.discogs.com/release/6746415-Tom-E-Lewis-Beneath-The-Sun | access-date=12 March 2025}}

He plays didgeridu on the albums Recorded Messages: Violin (2000), played by violinist Eve Duncan,{{cite web | title=Recorded Messages: Violin | website=Move Records | url=http://www.move.com.au/disc/eve-duncan-recorded-messages-violin | access-date=12 March 2025}} and Ambient Voice (2001), with vocals by Dean Frenkel.{{cite web | title=Ambient Voice | website=Move Records | url=http://www.move.com.au/disc/dean-frenkel-ambient-voice | access-date=12 March 2025}}

Lewis participated in the promotion of Melbourne's bid for the 1996 Olympic Games. In 2000 Lewis he ran with the Olympic torch in Melbourne.

Lewis was married to Fleur Parry,{{cite web | last=Sebag-Montefiore | first=Clarissa | title=The inflatable screen taking Indigenous film back to the Top End | website=The Guardian | date=9 June 2018 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jun/09/an-inflatable-screen-and-8000km-the-film-festival | access-date=12 March 2025}} a theatre manager, and they had a daughter together. He also had other children.

In a 2007 interview, Lewis said that Northern Territory senator Bob Collins, who died a few days before he was due to face court on child sex abuse, had abused him as a child. He went through a period of alcohol abuse and estrangement from his family and community.

Lewis, helped by his wife, reclaimed his life and cultural traditions, moving to Wugularr (Beswick) in South Arnhem Land, in 2001.

He founded a cultural foundation, the Djilpin Arts Aboriginal Corporation,{{cite web |title=Djilpin Arts – Indigenous Culture and Community Life |url=https://djilpinarts.org.au/ |website=Djilpin Arts |access-date=20 December 2021 |language=en-AU}} which hosts the "Walking with Spirits" festival at Beswick Falls each year.{{cite web |title=Walking with Spirits |url=https://www.indigenous.gov.au/news-and-media/event/walking-spirits |website=Indigenous Government |access-date=20 December 2021}}{{cite web | last=Nally | first=Alicia | title=Songstress Emily Wurramara reflects on some of her key influences | website=cairnspost | date=3 July 2017 | url=https://www.cairnspost.com.au/entertainment/songstress-emily-wurramara-reflects-on-some-of-her-key-influences/news-story/3815e262023ec3e9caf320100159fb0f | access-date=15 March 2025| quote=My career highlight thus far would be ... having the opportunity to jump on stage with Coloured Stone at the Walking with Spirits festival at Beswick Falls in the Northen Territory.}} Journalist Jeff McMullen, who was a long-time friend of Lewis,{{cite web | last=Thompson | first=Jesse | title=Actor, musician and cultural leader Balang TE Lewis farewelled in Beswick ceremony | website=ABC News | date=29 May 2018 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-29/balang-lewis-star-of-jimmie-blacksmith-farewelled-in-beswick/9811018 | access-date=12 March 2025}} was patron of the Walking with Spirits festival.{{cite web | title=Jeff McMullen advocacy | website=jeffmcmullen | date=1 January 1970 | url=https://www.jeffmcmullen.com.au/advocacy | access-date=12 March 2025}} The organisation has been described "as one of his largest legacies".

Lewis died of a heart attack on 10 May 2018 in Katherine, Northern Territory.{{cite news|last1=McLennan|first1=Chris|title=Katherine actor-musician Barlang Lewis dies|url=https://www.katherinetimes.com.au/story/5394355/katherine-actor-musician-tom-e-lewis-dies/?src=rss|accessdate=11 May 2018|publisher=Katherine Times|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20180613201916/https://www.katherinetimes.com.au/story/5394355/katherine-actor-musician-barlang-lewis-dies/?src=rss |archive-date =13 June 2018|url-access =subscription}}

In 2000 Lewis was chosen to run with the Olympic torch in Melbourne.

A photographic portrait of Lewis by Juno Gemes was purchased by the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra in 2021. The description says: "The magnetic and charming personality which made Lewis such a compelling and successful actor is captured in Juno Gemes' portrait. With his leather jacket, white shirt and aviator sunglasses, Lewis invokes the feeling of James Dean as he poses against a wall papered with posters announcing upcoming gigs at the Sydney Trade Union Club in Surry Hills".{{cite web | title=Tom E Lewis [Balang T E Lewis], n.d. | website=National Portrait Gallery collection | date=3 February 2025 | url=https://www.portrait.gov.au/portraits/2021.28/tom-e-lewis-balang-t-e-lewis | access-date=11 March 2025}} Also held by the gallery is a photograph of an older Lewis, pulling a boat behind him, after "return[ing] to his grandmother's country to learn the songs of his ancestors". The photograph, taken by Philip Myers, was a finalist in the 2017 National Photographic Portrait Prize.{{cite web | last=Myers | first=Philip | title=Return, 2016 | website=National Photographic Portrait Prize image | date=3 February 2025 | url=https://www.portrait.gov.au/npppphoto/87535/ | access-date=11 March 2025| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250117055108/https://portrait.gov.au/npppphoto/87535/| archive-date= 17 Jan 2025| url-status=live}}

He was described in a Guardian article following his death as "a giant in the remote Arnhem Land community".

Lewis was also the recipient of various awards and honours, including:

• 2005: Bob Maza Fellowship (2005), for Yellow Fella{{cite web|title=Bob Maza Fellowship|url=http://afcarchive.screenaustralia.gov.au/newsandevents/mediarelease/2005/release_385.aspx|website=Australian Film Commission archive|publisher=Screen Australia|accessdate=11 May 2018}}
• 2006: Music Release of the Year, Northern Territory Indigenous Music Awards, for Sunshine After Rain
• 2006: Red Ochre Award, awarded to an outstanding Indigenous Australian (Aboriginal Australian or Torres Strait Islander) artist for lifetime achievement{{cite web | title=2006 RED OCHRE AWARD | website=Creative Australia | date=19 July 2021 | url=https://creative.gov.au/news/media-releases/2006-red-ochre-award-2/ | access-date=11 March 2025}}
• 2008: Honourable Mention, imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, for One River, All Rivers
• 2008: Co-winner (with Julia Morris), Best Music Video, imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, for Warrk Warrk (Black Crow){{cite web| url=https://www.rmkcrew.com.au/media/Julia_Morris_RMK_CV_feb2018.pdf| title=Julia Morris| publisher=RMK Crew| access-date=16 March 2025}}
• 2017: Best Actor, Canberra Short Film Festival, International Category, for They Live in Forests, They Are Extremely Shy (2016){{cite web|title=2017 Winners|url=https://www.csff.com.au/2017-winners|website=Canberra Short Film Festival|accessdate=11 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226102323/https://www.csff.com.au/2017-winners| archive-date= 26 Feb 2021}}{{cite web | title=They Live in Forests, They Are Extremely Shy (2016) | website=IMDb | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6184924/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_st#cast | access-date=12 March 2025}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|0507835}}
• [https://ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/3608 Tom E Lewis] on AusStage
• {{official|https://www.djilpinarts.org.au/|Djilpin Arts}}

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Category:1958 births

Category:2018 deaths

Category:Australian composers

Category:Australian male composers

Category:Indigenous Australian male actors

Category:Indigenous Australian musicians

Category:People from the Northern Territory