Jimmy Little AO (1937–2012), singer, actor and advocate, was Australia's first Aboriginal pop star. A Yorta Yorta man, Little made his recording debut in 1956. After a 1963 national number one hit, 'Royal Telephone', which sold over 75,000 copies, he became a household name. In the 1980s, he mentored Indigenous youth at the Eora Centre in Redfern and from 2000 was a guest lecturer at the University of Sydney's Koori Centre. In 1999 his album Messenger won an ARIA Award for Best Adult Contemporary Album and he was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Named a Living National Treasure in 2004, he won the Classic Rock Performer Mo Award following the release of his 34th album, Life's What You Make It. He founded the Jimmy Little Foundation in 2006 to improve renal health across Indigenous communities. Little won a Golden Guitar award at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in 2011.
In 2000, the Walk for Reconciliation across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and similar events around Australia demonstrated public support for the cause. Murri photographer Mervyn Bishop took this image of Little performing at the Dubbo Reconciliation Group event in 2000. It was shown in the exhibition of Bishop's work, A Dubbo Day With Jimmy, at Sydney's Stills Gallery from July to August 2001.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
© Mervyn Bishop
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Over the last five years the National Portrait Gallery has developed a collection of portrait photographs that reflects both the strength and diversity of Australian achievement as well as the talents of our photographers.
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