Tamala Shelton is a proud Bundjalung and Lamalama actor, writer and activist

Tamala Shelton is a proud Bundjalung and Lamalama actor, writer and activist. Tamala started acting as a teenager and starred in shows such as Upper Middle Bogan, Nowhere Boys and Cleverman. She has since been recording a multitude of First Nations audiobooks and is the host of Storybox Library. After the passing of Archie Roach in 2022, Tamala has been performing a spoken-word rendition of her late Uncle Archie’s song ‘Cradle of Life’. Recently she co-founded Ripple Cinema, a monthly film screening and panel discussion aimed at bringing awareness to certain topics, sparking conversation and raising funds. 

Tell me a bit about yourself and your acting. When did you start, what has the journey been like and where do you hope to be in the near future?

I started acting in the film and television industry when I was 14 years old. I actually had my 15th birthday on the set of Nowhere Boys, which was my first main-cast role.  I am lucky in that my acting journey was quite smooth sailing for the first 4 years and I enjoyed regular work. 

Things began to slow down a little when I hit early adulthood; transitioning into adult content is a tricky one for all child actors, as you enter a larger market of performers trying to get hired. As you can imagine, in that time I began to enjoy my fair share of the notorious ‘please-hire-me-otherwise-I-will-feel-very-sad-about-my-life’ actor’s shtick. This drought coincidentally happened to hit at the same time as my audiobook-narration career began, which was an enormous blessing and ended up keeping me financially afloat during the pandemic.

After the lockdowns lifted in Naarm (Melbourne, Aus) I was asked to be a part of a play-reading-adaptation of ‘The Well’ by Elizabeth Jolley with the Melbourne Theatre Company, this was my first ever stage performance and was as terrifying as it was thrilling. 

My acting career has taken many twists and turns, and all for the better. During the pandemic, I took the down-time as an opportunity to think about who I wanted to be as a performer. I wanted to get really clear on who I am, what I bring to the table and ways I can bring more agency into my career. 

This is where I began to put more time into my creative writing and poetry. I realized I not only want to be a performer, but I also want to be creating my own content and sharing my own stories.  

I now have a screen-script chugging along in the background of my brain and am beginning my journey as a spoken word performer, with a potential poetry-album in the works. 

I have recently been performing a spoken-word rendition of the late Uncle Archie Roach’s song Cradle of Life as part of a tribute honoring his life and music. With more shows lined up for the rest of the year, I am so grateful to be a part of honoring our Uncle in this way as he was a very big part of my life. 

I hope to create a career for myself where I am both performer and creator. Where I am working with filmmakers that inspire me and am actively creating my own content. I look forward to continuing to express myself across all platforms; an actor, a writer, a performer, a spoken word artist, a storyteller. 

Did your upbringing inspire a love for the arts?

Absolutely! I grew up in the music industry. My mum is a musician manager, and my father is a musician, so I was surrounded by a lot of creatives and performers. I grew up on tour, waiting in greenrooms, running around music festivals, sitting in on lounge room jam sessions. 

It was a colourful childhood, surrounded by people who see the world in very unique ways.  

I also have my mum to thank for my early start in acting, as she was always supportive of me expressing myself creatively, even if it meant missing school to be on set. 

The arts have always been an integral part of my development and my life. 

Can you share a special moment in your acting life?

Ooooh there are so many! Two moments come to mind, however. 

The first, is sitting on a surfboard at 5am in Currumbin, Queensland, watching the sun rise over the sea and learning how to surf for a lead role in a US series. Getting a taste for surf-life whilst filming and doing what I love, was a pretty extraordinary experience.  

The second, was being on stage at the Melbourne Theatre Company. Feeling the thrill that only stage performance can invoke. Hearing the sounds of the audience as they watch us do our thing. The complete terror of going on stage at all and somehow overcoming it. That was pretty special. 

Being an indigenous actor, why is representation important to you?

This is a big one. Complex and so relevant. 

As a mixed-raced First Nations actor, I have had an unusual journey in the film and television industry. I have found myself caught between being seen as “not black enough” and “not white enough” in the industry’s eyes. This is inherently racist and a problem that needs to be addressed for all mixed-race performers. 

We need to start acknowledging that Blak has many shades. The industry needs to be more inclusive of this in their casting and strive to showcase a true depiction of what it is to be a First Nations person in this country. 

This country is built on stolen land. Representation is important because First Nations people have suffered decades of white-washing and active erasure. It is time for First Nations mob to not only have a seat at the table (which has been and continues to be denied us) but be at the forefront of every conversation and decision making in this country. We need more funding, we need to be made priority. 

True reconciliation can only begin when we have our voices and stories heard. We are not here to fulfill a tokenism inclusion quota. 

During the extended lockdowns in Victoria, you were able to record an array of audio books, tell us about that journey.

I was soooo lucky that I got the opportunity to keep recording during the lockdowns. It definitely kept me sane!

I’ve been narrating audiobooks for 6 years now and have found myself narrating a lot of novels by First Nations authors specifically.  Which are such special gigs when they come by because often I am required to learn phrases in different First Nations languages. It also means that I’m reading books that keep me connected to my culture in ways I never expected. 

Audiobook narration is such an amazing job, it keeps me reading which is something I have always loved, keeps me engaged with powerful storytelling and keeps my acting muscles warmed up when I’m in between jobs. I feel very blessed to do it! 

You've just started a new venture called Ripple Cinema, can you tell us a bit about that?

This whole venture began when I attended an Incarceration Conversations workshop hosted by my friend Nome Domingo. She shared a stat that 50% of Victoria’s prison population are from only 6% of Victoria’s postcodes. My first thought was, ‘how can we get to know that 6%. Until we humanize these people, get to know them, bridge those gaps – this 6% will remain ‘othered’. They will remain on the fringes, out of sight out of mind, and the system will continue chugging along none the wiser. I shared this with Nome at the end of her workshop and we two Piscean’s cried. This became the birth of Ripple Cinema. 

So often us well-intentioned people sign the petition, attend the rally, wear the shirt, share the post and yet still feel powerless in having any agency over real systemic change in our society. Nome and I began to brainstorm ways in which we as individuals can have more agency over our activism in our everyday experience. 

What became very clear is our ability to control what content we engage with ie . the books we read, the podcasts we listen to, the people we meet, the films we watch. 

We believe that cinema is an incredible resource for change making and connection. It invites the audience into its world and encourages them to learn more about an issue or a person’s life. It plants seeds, starts new conversations, connects us to a broader community that is inclusive of all peoples. It initiates a ripple effect. 

Ripple Cinema is a monthly film screening and panel discussion fundraising event based in Naarm (Melbourne), where we showcase films on different social justice issues and talk with experts about it afterwards, with 100% of proceeds going to a charity relevant to the film's theme. 

We treat these events as an opportunity to not only amplify the voices of those affected but also to offer the audience an opportunity to educate themselves on these topics and engage in solution-based conversations. 

We have hosted two events so far, the first was a screening of Incarceration Nation where we raised over $700 for the Dhadjowa Foundation and the second screening was of The Wisdom of Trauma where we raised over $1000 for The Healing Foundation. 

We’ll also soon be launching Ripple Podcast which will include the recorded panel discussions from the live events, as well as a range of podcast episodes where we will keep the conversation going in one-on-one yarns. 

What do you do for self-care in between all your projects and what tips do you have for other creatives?

SLOW DOWN! I cannot stress this enough and absolutely need to remind myself of this daily. 

As a creative, it’s easy to burnout, we need a lot of down time to allow for those creative juices to get flowing.  For me, I’ve found that discipline around my morning routine and daily habits is also paramount. Daily meditation, some form of movement and boundary setting with screen time. 

Striking that balance with social media is important too. As creatives we often feel forced to have an active online presence, as that’s where a large portion of our audience lives now. But I’ve definitely found myself falling into that trap of doom-scrolling and putting pressure on myself to stay relevant and post regularly. I’ve found a good way to mitigate this, is by preplanning my content. Posting on the apps when I’ve planned to and then getting out of there as soon as possible. Sometimes I time myself too, only allowing for 5-10minute social media sessions and capping it at a certain total amount a day. This can be super helpful!

Interview Freya Bennett Photos Mia Mala McDonald