Indigenous Australia

Robert Merritt (1945–2011), playwright, was brought up on Erambie mission, New South Wales. His play the Cake Man, written while living in Bathurst, was an attempt to express the root causes of Aboriginal despair. It was first performed by the Black Theatre in Redfern in 1975. He founded the Eora Centre for the Visual and Performing Arts (Eora College), Redfern, in 1984 to provide training in the arts for Aboriginal students. From 1986 to 1989 he was chair of the Aboriginal Arts Board. He was the first Aboriginal member of the Australia Council and chair of the Festival of Pacific Arts in 1988. He died in May 2011.