Olympics, boxing and justice: Don’t miss this remarkable feat of live storytelling

11 hours ago 4

By Cameron Woodhead

July 10, 2025 — 1.04pm

THEATRE
My Cousin Frank ★★★
Arts Centre Melbourne, until July 12

Step into the ring with Rhoda Roberts this NAIDOC week, and you’ll see the proud Widjabul Wia-bal woman onstage, ducking and weaving through family history. My Cousin Frank is a free-flowing solo show, and a remarkable feat of live storytelling, tied to the history of Aboriginal boxing and the much bigger fight for Aboriginal justice.

It celebrates the life of Frank Roberts, dubbed “Honest Frank”. Almost four decades before Cathy Freeman lit the flame in Sydney and blazed her way to Olympic gold, Frank was the first Indigenous Olympian signed to represent Australia, at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Aboriginal people weren’t regarded as Australian citizens at the time and the young boxer was thrown onto bureaucratic ropes, including the insult of having to obtain a British passport to compete.

Sobering reminders of racism and discrimination shadow Frank’s story, but the spotlight is squarely on remembrance and respect, and the resilience and resistance of Aboriginal leaders who punched above their weight in a fight rigged against them.

Indigenous contribution to the sport of boxing was significant. Aboriginal athletes constituted an estimated 15 per cent of national champions in the early 20th century, and the Roberts clan itself counted many professional boxers among its ranks.

My Cousin Frank is a remarkable feat of live storytelling.

Preachers provided the other main career path in the family. Rhoda freely admits having inherited that line. Her father and grandfather were both pastors, and the performer’s charisma and rhetorical skills can’t be denied.

There’s something moving and deeply impressive about a spirituality that connected and reconciled Aboriginal lore with Christian belief. Religion met political and practical action in the founding of Cubawee, the self-governing Aboriginal reserve on the outskirts of Lismore where “Honest Frank” grew up.

The history of Cubawee is a highlight. It became a vital locus in the struggle for self-determination for the people of the Bundjalung Nation. Complete with archival photography, Rhoda Roberts charts generations of activism in the face of a paternalistic culture which exploited and abused the very people it was supposed to protect.

Righteous anger at injustice is tempered by love and mourning and generosity of spirit. My Cousin Frank can be quite funny and charming while channelling a deep moral and human authority. Inspiring theatre drawn from the annals of First Nations sport – joining the likes of Black Cockatoo, 37, and Sunshine Super Girl – it’s also connected to a living tradition of oral history spanning many tens of thousands of years.
Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead

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