Mafi-Williams, Lorraine

Also known as
Mafi-Williams, Lorraine (1940-2001)
Williams, Lorraine Mafi-
Field of activity
Actor, Film maker and Writer
Libraries Australia
http://nla.gov.au/anbd.aut-an35693059
NLA Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-556503

Biographies

Lorraine Mafi-Williams was an extraordinarily talented woman who ran once for parliament, as an Independent in the 1995 New South Wales Legislative Assembly elections for Ballina. She spent her lifetime in creative and caring activities.

Parliamentary and Local Government Career

Lorraine Mafi-Williams was born in 1940 at Purfleet, New South Wales. She was forcibly removed from her parents when young, and did not meet them again until she was 15 years old. By this time she had finished school and had been working in domestic roles for several years.

In 1967 she moved to Sydney and became involved with the Aboriginal Family Education Centre. She spent three years as a health worker. During the 1970s and 1980s Mafi-Williams became part of a powerful activist group in Sydney. With her cousin Mum Shirl and her niece Isabel Coe, she was instrumental in helping care for over 4,000 children of many ethnic backgrounds.

As well as being politically active, Mafi-Williams was culturally and creatively active. She became involved with the Aboriginal Black Theatre Art and Culture Centre in Redfern and helped found the Black Theatre in Newtown. She took courses in film-making, worked as a film production assistant, and acted in a series of films and plays, including The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Women of the Sun, The Timeless Land and Pig in a Poke. In 1988 she secured funding of $29,000 from the Australian Film Commission and the Aboriginal Arts Board of the Australia Council to make her own film, Eelemarni, based on the life of a warrior of her Gidabal (Bundjalung) people.

Lorraine Mafi-Williams was also a writer and storyteller. She wrote children’s stories based on traditional Aboriginal stories, short stories and poems. She edited Spirit Song, an anthology of Aboriginal poetry, published in 1993.

She ran as an independent candidate for the state seat of Ballina in 1995. She wanted to establish a cultural sanctuary at Leavers Lake, near Suffolk Park on the north coast of New South Wales, and this brought her into conflict with others in the area.

In the late 1990s, her health deteriorated and she was diagnosed with diabetes. She died in February 2001.

View the full record at Australian Women's Register

Resources for Lorraine Mafi-Williams

Selected resources (3)

Australian Women's Register

  1. Putting Skirts on the Sacred Benches: Women Candidates for the New South Wales Parliament
    Australian Women's Archives Project
    [2006]
    Published: Australian Women's Archives Project
    Series: http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/pssb/home.html
  2. Women of the sun
    Maris, Hyllus and Sonia Borg
    [1985]
    Published: Penguin Books
  3. The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia : Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, society and culture
    Horton, David
    [1994]
    Published: Aboriginal Studies Press for AIATSIS

Resources by Lorraine Mafi-Williams (14)

  1. Spirit song : a collection of Aboriginal poetry / compiled by Lorraine Mafi-Williams
    Mafi-Williams, Lorraine
    [ Book : 1993 ]
    At 11 libraries
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 20.526)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 20.526)

  2. Spirituality / Lorraine Mafi Williams ... [et al.] ; associate producer, Kinsie McDonald
    Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Aboriginal Program Unit
    [ Video : 1989 ]
    At 19 libraries
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 16.25)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 16.25)

  3. [Kids & culture] produced by Lorraine Mafi-Williams, David Sandy ; directed by David Sandy
    Marcom Projects
    [ Video : 1991 ]
    At 10 libraries
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 10.432)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 10.432)

  4. Eelemarni
    [ Video : 1988-1989 ]
    Languages: Australian languages, English
    At 6 libraries
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 8.677)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 8.677)

  5. Unconventional means : the dream down under / Anne Richardson Williams ; with aboriginal traditional stories as told by Lorraine Mafi-Williams
    Williams, Anne Richardson
    [ Book : 2000-2005 ]
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 6.545)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 6.545)

  6. Education / directors, Susan Coombs ... [et al.] ; associate producer, Kinsie McDonald
    Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Aboriginal Program Unit
    [ Video : 1989-2008 ]
    At 22 libraries
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 5.324)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 5.324)

  7. Role of the elders in black communities
    Mafi-Williams, Lorraine
    N.S.W. Council on the Ageing Conference
    [ Article : 1985 ]
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 4.872)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 4.872)

  8. Eelemarni : the story of Leo and Leva
    Australian Film Commission
    [ Video : 1988 ]
    Languages: English, Australian languages
    At 12 libraries
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 4.557)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 4.557)

  9. Women of the sun
    Generation Films
    [ Video : 1981-2006 ]
    Languages: English, Australian languages
    At 85 libraries
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 4.437)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 4.437)

  10. Rainbow serpent. director/producer, Richard Guthrie
    SBS-TV
    [ Video : 1985-2007 ]
    At 33 libraries
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 3.599)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 3.599)

More...

Resources about Lorraine Mafi-Williams (4)

  1. [Biographical cuttings on Lorraine Mafi-Williams, Aboriginal film-maker, containing one or more cuttings from newspapers or journals]
    [ Published : 1900-1990 ]
    At National Library
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 23.096)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 23.096)

  2. Spirit Song.(Book Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
    Magpies
    [ Article : 1994 ]
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 4.373)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 4.373)

  3. Spirit Song.(Book Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
    Emergency Librarian
    [ Article : 1994 ]
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 4.368)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 4.368)

  4. A splicing of cultures
    Rose, Stephanie
    Portfolio
    [ Article : 1988 ]
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 3.649)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 3.649)

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