Natasha Wanganeen

Natasha Wanganeen is an Aboriginal Australian actor. She is known for her starring role in the 2002 feature film Rabbit Proof Fence, aged 15.

Early life

Wanganeen was born in Point Pearce, South Australia, moving to Port Adelaide when she was five years old.[1] She is a Ngarrindjeri, Narungga, Kaurna and Noongar woman.[2]

Career

Wanganeen starred in Rabbit Proof Fence (released 2002), playing dormitory boss[2] at the age of fifteen,[3] and the made-for-TV film Jessica directed by Peter Andrikidis and released in 2004.

In 2017 she starred as a zombie-killer[2] in the dystopian thriller Cargo.[3][2] Also in 2017, she played the role of Gilyagan in Kate Grenville's play The Secret River presented during the Adelaide Festival in March, and later played a different role in the two-part TV series of the same name.[4]

She played Mary, mother of a talented gymnast, in feature film A Second Chance: Rivals!, released in 2019,[5][6] and in the same year played a ghoul in the horror film Dark Place.[2]

As of June 2020, Wanganeen is working on a new sci-fi series, inspired by Afrofuturism, called Bunker: The Last Fleet. She is co-writing, producing and starring in the yet-to-be-filmed series, which it is hoped will be shown on SBS TV, NITV or the ABC. She plays Tjarra, an Aboriginal warrior in Australia 37 years in the future. She is also writing a script for her own independent film, Battle Of The Ancestors, set 60,000 years ago against a backdrop of Aboriginal mythology, including Dreamtime stories and characters she knows from here childhood years. She is being supported by Screen Australia and the South Australian Film Corporation in this endeavour, and is in talks with local production companies who are interested in seeing it made.[2]

Awards
  • 2004 – AFI Young Actor's Award, for Jessica[1][7]

Activism

In 2018, Wanganeen advocated for greater cultural diversity in Australian screen culture, saying "There are not enough black faces on our screens and talking about it is a constructive conversation that we need to have".[8] She expressed her pleasure at the portrayal of Aboriginal people in Cargo (2017) as "living free and strong on the land".[9]

Wanganeen was one of the organisers of the Black Lives Matter protest in Adelaide on 6 June 2020, which focussed on racism and injustices against Indigenous Australians, in particular high rates of incarceration and Aboriginal deaths in custody.[10][11]

Personal life

She lives in Port Adelaide and is related to the Australian rules footballer, Gavin Wanganeen.[4]

References
  1. "Natasha Wanganeen". Deadly Vibe (94). 30 November 2007. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  2. Skujins, Angela (16 June 2020). "'Bunker: The Last Fleet' imagines a dystopian Australian future through an Indigenous lens". CityMag. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  3. Wanganeen, Natasha (3 January 2019). "Top Shelf: Natasha Wanganeen" (audio & text). Radio National (The Screen Show) (Interview). Interviewed by Di Rosso, Jason. Originally aired 12 July 2018. Austrlian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  4. "Mother of all roles for actress". www.adelaidenow.com.au. 25 November 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  5. Osborne, Kayla (16 September 2019). "Budding Glen Alpine actress scores first role in a feature film". Campbelltown-Macarthur Advertiser. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  6. "A Second Chance: Rivals! (2019) - Full Cast & Crew". IMDb. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  7. "Natasha Wanganeen - Awards". IMDb. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  8. "Natasha Wanganeen questions diversity on Australian screens". SBS Your Language. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  9. "Outback Australia after the plague". Eureka Street. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  10. Wedding, Nicole. "Gallery: Moments From Adelaide's Black Lives Matter Rally". Broadsheet. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  11. Skujins, Angela (9 June 2020). "'You're going to hear us – really hear us'". CityMag. Photos by Jack Fenby, Tim Lyons and Dimitra Koriozos. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
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