Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM died peacefully in Alice Springs hospital on January 26th, surrounded by her family.
Born at Artekerre soak on Utopia station in 1937, Ms Kunoth-Monks shot to stardom as a teenager when she became the first Aboriginal woman to play a leading role in a feature film.
Cast as Jedda in the 1955 movie of the same name, she starred alongside the late Aboriginal actor Robert Tudawalli, and was depicted in the film as an orphan raised by a white woman.
A still of Rosalie Kunoth-Monks from the 1955 'Jedda', in which she played the main role. Source: Supplied
In paying tribute to her mother, Ngarla Kunoth-Monks said it was a huge culture shock for the then 16-year-old.
“She was very shy because she had been bought up in a tribal setting so she didn’t really know much about the outside world.
"It was just a matter of them telling her what to do at that time, 'we’re filming now, you do it, you have to say this,' so she did it."
Directed by Charles Chauvell, it was the first Australian movie to be shot entirely in colour and the first to be screened at Cannes.
Ngala Kunoth-Monks (L) looks at photos of her late mother with family. Source: NITV
Tiwi actor Rob Collins, star of the new Warwick Thornton Vampire series 'Firebite', paid tribute to the film pioneer whose ground breaking performance was an inspiration.
“When you're talking about Indigenous representation on screen... she's an absolute trailblazer and obviously inspired generations of Indigenous actors around Australia,” Mr Collins said.
“We owe a huge debt of gratitude to people like Rosalie. I remember being halfway through my acting studies, sitting in the reference library here in Darwin watching Jedda, seeing Rosalie and Robert Tudawalli on screen and thinking 'anything's possible', and that will be her legacy for generations of Indigenous actors to come.”
Ngarla Kunoth-Monks said it was a legacy her mother was proud of.
Ms Kunoth-Monks' work in 'Jedda' was hailed from breaking barriers and allowing First Nations success on screen. Source: Supplied
"Mum was thrilled that in her lifetime more and more Aboriginal Australians are being portrayed on screen and they’re getting the roles.
"It’s not like the old days when it was black paint... put on people to pretend to be us. Now we’re there, we’re in people’s faces, and mum loved that."
Despite her fame at the time, Rosalie Kunoth-Monks turned away from the limelight and became an Anglican nun in Melbourne where she served for ten years, before leaving to continue her advocacy work.
"She got work with the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and she set up the first home for Aboriginal children that kept siblings together," her daughter said
"From that stemmed a desire in mum to come back and work for her people. She never lost her language and she never lost her connection."
In 1970 she married Bill Monks, the union resulting in their daughter Ngarla Kunoth-Monks, who has inherited her mother's passion for social justice.
“Living through all of that time and you feel that you’re inferior all the time it does something to a person and if we don’t stand up and say what it is, then nothing will change and that’s how mum felt."
In 1993, Rosalie Kunoth-Monks was recognised for her advocacy, with the Medal of the Order of Australia and again in 2015 when she was named Northern Territory Australian of the year.
Ms Kunoth-Monks shot to national prominence again in 2014 but on the small screen , when she delivered a stirring speech about culture, sovereignty and survival on the ABC’s Q&A program.
Ms Kunoth-Monks receiving one of her many accolades. Source: Supplied
“I speak my language, I practice my cultural essence of me. Don’t try and suppress me and don’t call me a problem. I am not the problem. I have never left my country nor have I ceded any part of it. Nobody has entered into a treaty or talked to me about who I am," she said on the program.
She also took her passion to the international stage when she travelled to Geneva with Yolngu Elder Reverend Djiniyini Gondara and testified before the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination about the 2007 Intervention.
On returning home she continued to condemn the policy and the imposition of federal leases that targeted only Aboriginal people in 73 remote communities in the Norther Territory.
At 72 years of age Rosalie Kunoth-Monks tried to rally her people by campaigning for office in the Northern Territory.
She served as President of the Barkly Shire in the Northern Territory and was Chancellor of the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education.
Rosalie Kunoth-Monks is survived by her 5 children and 19 grandchildren.
"She fought for her people because of the policies that don’t help us get out of the poverty that we have been put in," her grand daughter Amelia Kunoth-Monks said.
"She wanted to fight against those policies and make her people act like they have purpose and dignity to live as equal people to our non-Indigenous brothers and sisters."
A memorial service to celebrate a remarkable life is being planned for Alice Springs, before Rosalie Kunoth-Monks is laid to rest at a private burial on country at Utopia.
